Kantai Collection: Bigger, Little Sister (rewrite)
by Hayane234
Summary: The most powerful Kanmusu is set to sail on the open seas but how she gets there now that's a story that'll now be told.
1. Prolouge

Okay 3rd time's a charm with this story as well. Modifications to all chapters have been made so you have to read them again in order to find out what's changed.

Okay Hayane234 signing out and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

 _It was the year 2019 and the world was in a state of peace and tranquility, trade and tourism were at an all time high, war was pretty much was non-existence except in the family home, everyone was getting along just fine. However all of that was going to change…._

 _It all started with a few ships getting sunk, a fishing trawler here, a tug boat there, small scale vessels. What came from the survivor's mouths though unnerved the people of the world, all they could say was that they saw a blackish blur rushing at them without warning, unleashing ungodly sounds as it tore through the ship's hull and just as quickly as it appeared it vanished beneath the waves._

 _The governments at the time dismissed what had been said as nonsense saying that they must have been seeing things and that the ship's engine had exploded stating that was the reason all of the ships had sank. Little did they know that this was just start._

 _A few months had passed since then and the frequency of ships being sunk had been on the rise, more evidence of the attackers had been obtained showing what seemed to be a shark-like creature with a sole glowing green eye and what appeared to be a cannon barrel sticking out of its mouth._

 _It was then that all hell broke loose, the JMSDF Helicopter Destroyer Izumo was attacked without warning by these creatures, which by then had been called 'abyssals ', the ship was outmatched and outgunned and was quickly sunk beneath the waves with all hands lost. It was the biggest naval incident that the Japanese had suffered from since ww2._

 _This victory for the Abyssals sparked the beginning of a war against humanity, with Abyssal groups popping up all over the world attacking every ship and port city that they could causing destruction wherever they went plunging the world into chaos._

 _The navies of the world fought long and hard against the enemy, they had won some pretty significant battles against the Abyssals but alas they were no match for the endless waves of destruction brought by the enemy and every navy had suffered greatly at the hands of their foes and as a result the Abyssals had taken the world's oceans for themselves leaving the nation's cut off from one another causing trade to collapse, families to be separated and no way to properly protect themselves anymore, clearly something needed to be done._

 _The answer to the abyssal threat came in the form of a Japanese scientist known as Takahashi Ryosuke, who by some miracle had managed to capture some live abyssals and thus he began his experiments to figure out just what made the enemy tick and what they found out had shocked the team._

 _What they had discovered was that the abyssals that they had captured all contained blue spherical cores, which produced some strange energy which was assumed to be the source of the Abyssals power, and upon closer inspection inside the core was a ship fragment, which when analyzed showed that it came from the ships used by the Japanese during WW2._

 _It was then that one of the older female members of the team on accident touched the core and was blinded by a bright blue light, the other members rushed in just as the blue light had faded and saw that the core had vanished, just as they were about to ask what had happened suddenly out of nowhere a long piece of material akin to a flight deck had appeared on her left arm, a carrier full of arrows appeared on her back and lastly a large bow appeared in her left hand._

 _This shocked both the person and the rest of the team members for a while, but it didn't take long for the woman to undergo tests to see if nothing bad had happened to her, in fact she was perfectly healthy, they did find that though she was no longer fully human, but both human and ship. More tests were then performed and apart from the fact that she could now launch planes, stand on water and that her diet had changed a bit, she took a liking to eating steel and drinking fuel, she was perfectly normal._

 _It was after this that Professor Takahashi took the remaining 3 cores that they had and asked if anyone else wanted to try and replicate what had happened with the older woman, a lot of them had worries about what had happened, but eventually three girls of varying ages decided to try it out and as a result three more human-ship hybrids came into existence, the equipment they gained differed from one another. The exact same tests were performed on the three girls and the result were the same._

 _Due to extensive research into the core's fragments before hand the ships that they had come from had been determined, aircraft carrier Houshou, destroyer Inazuma, destroyer Samidare and lastly experimental light cruiser Yuubari. Due to this information the girls had decided to take them as their new names and because of them now being human-ship hybrids they were giving the designation of Kanmusu which literally meant Ship Girls._

 _It wasn't long before they proved themselves in battle against the Abyssals as whilst they were training a small group of I-class destroyers had appeared nearby and had engaged the group but it didn't take very long for most of them to be destroyed and the rest of them driven away, it was the first victory in the long battle against the Abyssals and as time passed the group know for the time being as ExFleet 1 had victory after victory against the Abyssals clearing out the area surrounding the lab._

 _With these victories as well as all of the data concerning the Kanmusu, such as the process of how they came to be, maintenance, repairs and sustenance had been collected and put in proper order. The whole team had sent the data to the JMSDF HQ, to which they responded by sending people down to confirm what had been written in the report._

 _Once they had been satisfied with everything, they immediately called the world's Navies into a press conference revealing to the world the kanmusu program, everyone thought that the Japanese had gone crazy that was until they showed the battle footage as well as the Kanmusu themselves, this silenced them and immediately they were on board with details about the program being sent out a few days later._

 _Navies all around the world had started to capture Abyssals to gain access to the cores with some success from conventional methods. Due to the research by each country and with data that they shared, they had found out that there was more success with the younger generation than the older, it still worked either way leading the Navies of the world to gain Kanmusu for themselves. The USA had the Yorktown Trio, Britain had HMS hood, Germany had Bismark and Prinz eugen, etc. each country was finally able to fight back against the Abyssals with varying degrees of success around the world._

 _Even though people could volunteer for their countries Kanmusu program not all people could travel to the testing center to see if they were viable, so the Navies decided to come up with portable core testing units placed in unmarked vehicles for safety reasons._

 _And thus the war against the Abyssals had final turned in humanity's favour, but they still had a long way to go before they could finally take back the seas from the current inhabitants._

Unknown Location

A certain silver haired boy, had just gotten out of bed unwise to the fate that was to befall him, all it would take is a blue core, a whole lot of luck and an unexpected change that will undoubtedly be a shock to everyone especially to him.


	2. Misfire

Time: 09:00

Date: August 4th

Year: 2020

Location: Mobile scanner No.4

Over the past year since the very first Kanmusu appeared, there has been many more that have shown up. As a result of this bases around the country, both active and deactivated, have become home to the kanmusu Fleets, Thus allowing them a greater area of operability in order to push back the Abyssal threat.

With the amount of fleets that have appeared over the past couple of months, that still did not stop people from going to either a testing center or a mobile scanner in order to see if they are viable to become a Kamusu.

We now join mobile scanner No.4 on a routine patrol run in the Minami ward in Yokohama as they start looking around, scanning for potential Kanmusu in waiting. But so far luck has not been on their side.

' _This really isn't going well'_ I said to myself sighing as I took a right turn at an intersection to head into the next scanning zone.

Hi there my name Aria Miyanaga, I have royal-blue hair and brown eyes, I'm 35 years old and standing at an above average 5'4". I'm currently on the clock performing my duties of what's known in naval terms a scanner, basically we go around and look for people who can become Kanmusu and we do this via the core we have stored in the back of the van.

Now as to which ship fragment the core contains, we have absolutely no idea. We usually find out after a person has become a Kanmusu, not before which was really strange in retrospect.

"Can't this day go any faster, I'm dying of boredom over here" A voice said gaining my attention.

The person that the voice belongs to is a childhood friend of mine. She goes by Maxine Kanzashi, or Max for short. She is the same age as me and has strawberry blond hair and red eyes. She also stands at 5 foot even.

"Come on Max, we only have one more zone to cover. I'll buy you dinner if that helps" I said

"I'm holding you to that Aria" she responds

It was about half way through the zone and we were waiting at the next set of lights, it was at this point I sighed gaining the attention of Max.

"What's wrong Aria?" she asked

"I miss my fleet" I replied

"Come on, don't worry Ryuujou has a handle on everything"

"I guess, but I'd rather be there rather than being stuck in this van"

"I hear that"

I bet you are wondering what I mean by fleet, well I'll tell you. I'm an Admiral of my very own fleet of ship girls based out of Sado Island on the west coast of japan. Now I bet you are also wondering why an Admiral like myself doing in a scanner unit, well I got the short end of the stick.

You see we had a gathering of Admiral's down at HQ but a call came in for a 2 man unit to be made up to take over the scanner route due to the previous team being suddenly reassigned. So we decided by pulling straws seeing as the meeting was going to start soon. Who would've guessed that me and Max both lost and well here we are on patrol.

"Oh, scanner's got a hit. A couple of streets away" Max said

"Well, let's get going then" I replied increasing the speed of the van

It took up ten minutes before we arrived at the destination. When I saw where the scanner had led us I went wide-eyed in surprise….

' _This is nee-san's house…. no way'_ I said to myself as Max pulled out her binoculars to get a look

"I see two girls, the scanner is being weird at the moment so I can't get an accurate reading on which one of them the core is responding to"

' _Two girls huh…. haha it seems my dear Nephew had been tricked by Yoko into wearing girl's clothing again. Thank god I'm not getting involved, yet.'_ I said to myself watching the two of them run around the front yard.

"Get back here"

"Catch me if you can, nee-chan"

"That's nii-san to you damn it, stop running away"

"Not when you're wearing that sundress, Nee-chan"

"Damn it!" I roared

I guess I better introduce myself huh. Well my name is Fumio Yamaguchi and I'm 17 years old, I have neck length silver hair, I also have what's known as a heterochromia with my left eye being blue and my right eye being yellow and I stand at 4'3". Yes I'm a Chibi *sighs* for whatever reason my development left me in a position that from a glance most people confuse me for a small girl.

I just can't understand why I developed the way I did, as a result I'm constantly teased by my younger sister. Who by the way is the main reason I'm currently wearing a sundress as I lost in an unexpected game of jan-ken-pon.

This really got me annoyed and caused me to start chasing her around the house and eventually the front yard. Anyway meet my younger sister Yoko Yamaguchi, 15 years old, has waist length blue hair and blue eyes. She also stands slightly over the average height at 5'3". With her height advantage she towers over me and she uses her height to constantly get on my nerves with her constant teasing.

But beneath her teasing surface I know she cares for me deeply, due to the fact that I raised her on my own most of the time because Kaa-san was always busy at work for most days and only came home when she had time off.

I was starting to slow down so I took a break to catch my breath but I slipped up because I gave my nee-chan a chance to tease me, to which she readily did….

"Come on slow coach" Yoko yelled pissing me off even more

"That's it!" I roared and resumed the chase.

' _Haha…. it seems some things never change with those two'_ I said to myself. It seemed to me that Max was still trying to pin down which of the two the core was reacting to.

' _It has to be Yoko, I mean Fumio can't become one because he's a boy…. I think'_

"Hey Aria can you check on the core for me I think I heard something back there" max says snapping me out of my thoughts.

It was then I could start to hear some sounds coming from the back of the van, so I got out and went to open the rear doors and what I saw surprised me greatly. The core that we had been given was behaving erratically in its container unit and it was getting worse by the second. All of sudden the container broke and the core started to levitate and it then quickly sped off punching a hole through the side of the van.

I ran around the side and caught the direction the core was heading and I saw that….

' _Shit, Fumio!'_ "Hurry Max we got to get over there" I yelled as I started running with Max running not to far behind before going past me.

I had noticed that Fumio had taken another break and so I decided to turn around and tease him again. But as I did so I noticed a bright blue object flying quite quickly in our direction and to my horror it hit Fumio square in the back causing him to face plant into the ground.

"Fumio?" I called starting to panic "Fumio?" I asked once more as I got closer to him. All of sudden a energy blast came from Fumio's direction knocked me clean off feet and sent me straight into the fence causing me to seethe in pain. It was then that my panicked state skyrocketed and I roared "FUMIOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I then watched as he stood bolt upright and I heard him roar in pain, I knew at this point that something bad was going to happen. Oh man I wished I was wrong about this.

Changes were happening to Fumio, slowly at first starting with his hair getting longer to mid-back length. It was then that the changes rapidly increase their pace, his overall body shape had become far more feminine, with places thinning and expanding. His voice had become far higher than it was as he continued to roar in pain. The last two changes made sure that Fumio was completely female as an emptiness was now between her legs and lastly her chest expanded to fit her new frame perfectly causing the sundress she was wearing to fit even more snugly.

I can't believe what the hell I just witnessed. I just saw my older brother become my older sister, he had become a girl!. I knew the cause of this was that blue light and it seemed that for now the transformation had stopped. But deep down I had a feeling it wasn't finished.

"Fumio?" I asked once more as I approached her, but then out of nowhere four large turrets that looked like they belonged on a tank appeared on her back. I started to get worried again as I saw that the turrets were connected by what seems to be a funny looking x-brace with flat bits under the turrets. From there they were attached to her back by the top half of a racing harness. I couldn't tell if there was anything attached to the rear of what Kaa-san calls an outfit, because I couldn't see anything.

Instead what I saw was a huge amount of what seemed to be fairies that were flying around her body, which kind of freaked me out a little seeing as I've never seen them up close before. Fumio then opened her eyes and looked at me, saying "Nee-chan" before passing out so I rushed out to catch her. Luckily the turrets vanished just as I stopped her from hitting the ground.

Thankful that everything was over my emotions finally took over and I started to cry as I stroked Fumio's hair, wondering why the hell this had happened. It was then that a voice spoke up.

"Holy shit, that was violent" I turned to where the voice had come from and I saw a strawberry blond haired woman, now what she said pissed me off so I retaliated by saying….

"Of course it was freaking violent you goddamn idiot, that blue light just caused my big brother to turn into a Kanmusu for fucks sake!"

"Not a snowball's chance in hell, there is simply no way a male can become a Kanmusu" the woman stated

"Yoko's right Max, Fumio is my Nephew" Another person said and I saw that It was Auntie Aria that had walked up beside the other woman

"No way" she replied going wide-eyed in shock

"There is no time to waste, Max get the van over here pronto" Auntie yelled

"On it" the person named Max said bolting off somewhere

"Yoko"

"Y-Yes"

"We need to get Fumio to the Naval hospital ASAP, who knows what else could have happened to him during his change into a Kanmusu"

I then picked her up in a princess carry and as soon as Max-san showed up in the Van, I went into the back and placed Fumio down gently placing a blanket over her.

Auntie then got into the van and drove as quick as she could before speaking to me

"Yoko, get a hold of your Kaa-san she needs to know what happened"

I replied by pulling out my phone and dialing Kaa-san number but….

"Shit! Auntie she's not answering what do we do!" I yelled

"Damn it all, Alright calm down Yoko I'm calling it in" Auntie said using her laptop to to initiate what seemed to be a video call.

Location: JMSDF HQ, conference room

' _I'm glad that's finally over'_ I said to myself. Hello my name is Emika Yamaguchi, I'm 36 years old and have mid-back length dark blue hair and I stand at 5'6". I'm also the mother to two wonderful children, a boy and a girl well *giggles* more like two girls seeing how much Yoko teases Fumio by making him wear female clothing most of the time.

Anyway I bet you are wondering why I'm here, well It's my job to be here. Seeing as I'm the current head of the Japanese Kanmusu program. That's right I was chosen to make sure that the program runs smoothly and thankfully it is. Now today was an Important day because every two months the Admiral's of the various Kanmusu fleets get together and basically we update each other on how our fleets are doing.

Now we mainly do this via secure video calling, but seeing as every admiral was here with their secretary ship girl. We just decided to host it here in the HQ. Now I was about to end the meeting when suddenly a call popped up on the main screen….

' _I wonder what nee-chan wants, maybe something happened'_ I said to myself as I accepted the call and I saw Aria-nee looking pretty worried.

"What is wrong unit 4, I was about to dismiss the meeting" I said

"Stop with the formality crap sis and get your ass down to the Naval hospital ASAP" she yelled "It's Fumio" she continued to say causing me to realise something was really wrong.

"What Happened Aria!" I yelled

"Your son, Fumio has turned into a GODDAMN SHIPGIRL!" she roared

"Bullshit!" one of the other Admiral's said, it was then that Aria played a video confirming what she had said. Fumio turning into a ship girl.

"That's was almost half an hour ago sis. Yoko is in the back crying her eyes out and I'm here going as fast as I can scared out of my wits for the welfare of my Nephew. So what the fuck are you doing sis hurry up and get a move on!" She said before ending the call.

I Immediately jumped out of my seat and rushed out of the room, calling for my secretary ship to follow me.

"Zuihou, fetch a car now!"

"Yes Ma'am" she replied running off to the car pool whilst I grabbed a few things from my office before heading out to the front of the building. It didn't take long for Zuihou to show up in a jeep and I hopped in

"Quickly to the hospital, Zuihou"

"Ma'am!" she replied before she put her foot down and we sped off

' _Hold on Fumio, Yoko I'm coming!"_

Time: 11:30

Location: Yokosuka Naval Hospital

As soon as we pulled up to the entrance of the hospital, I hopped out and went inside with Zuihou not too far behind me. I started to look around when a voice got my attention.

"Kaa-san!" I looked over to where the voice had come from and saw Yoko sitting down in a chair, crying her eyes out, with Aria and Max across from her. As I got closer to them Yoko Jumped out of her seat, ran over and hugged me to which I hugged her back. Before looking over to Aria and asked

"Fumio, where is he?"

"First take a deep breath sis" she said to which I complied "Good, now don't worry Emika. Fumio has been taken to the Kanmusu wing and standard protocols for new ship girls have been carried out, so all we can do it sit and wait"

After she finished talking I looked over at the clock and saw that it was close to lunchtime. So I decided to take everyone over to the conference room in the Kanmusu wing. When we all had arrived and ordered some lunch, I asked the three of them to retell what had happened to Fumio from their perspectives in order to reinforce what I had seen in the video from earlier today. They happily obliged and told me what had happened.

It was now half two in the afternoon and after we had eaten we made some small talk before boredom had settled in and we all sat there trying to keep ourselves entertained. It was then that finally a video call came through and we all saw Doctor Mizu, a 28 year old red haired woman, who was our resident Kanmusu expert and hopefully she had some good news.

"How is she Mizu" I asked

Mizu then went on to explain that apart from the pain Fumio had suffered from the transition from male to female and then to Kanmusu, she was a perfectly healthy 17 year old girl. In fact she was so healthy that Mizu was in a state of shock. Now even though that she was a Kanmusu now and she had gained all of the quirks of becoming one, Mizu assured us that she would be the same as she was before.

This caused the four of us to sigh in relief that Fumio would be okay, but a question then popped into our heads….

"Mizu, did you figure out which ship fragment was contained in the core" I asked

"Yes Emika I did and lets me say it's a doozy of who Fumio has become" this caused us to become confused as to what she meant

"The fragment has been designated as Battleship A150" she continued to say

''''Battleship A150!'''' the five of us yelled in unison.

"For fuck sake, I really wish I had brought Yamato with me" Aria moaned

"And why is that?" Zuihou asked with the rest of us becoming curious as well

"Back during the war, there were two ships with the designation of A150 and A151, those two ships during the war were based on the Yamato-class given the term of Super-Yamato class, seeing as the both of them surpassed their sister ships in terms of firepower. The two of them were loaded with the largest guns of any warship of the time" She paused to take a swig of her drink before continuing

"Both ships had 8 510mm cannons in groups of two in four turrets making them one hell of a deadly force to be reckoned with and now that Fumio has come into contact with the core…."

"My big brother has become A150 and as a result I think that she has become the most powerful Kanmusu to date. Am I right in saying that Kaa-san?" Yoko asked me

"Yes my dear that is exactly right and with that said, we now have another problem to deal. What are we going to call my daughter?" I asked

The six of us then brainstormed for a good fifteen minutes, throwing names left and right. But in the end we were going nowhere with deciding on a new name for her, so we all decided that we'll ask what she wants to be called when we go and see her.

"Mizu is it alright if we go and visit Fumio?" I asked

"Sorry Emika, everyone but I would advise against for now, the reason being is that Fumio is currently in a heavy sleep due to exhaustion from the day's events. It should be okay to visit her tomorrow though when she wakes up" she replied

It sucked that we couldn't see her right away but we were happy that Fumio was in good hands with Mizu watching over her. So we ended the call and then left the hospital, all of us then somehow crammed into the jeep and we made our way to a nearby hotel and checked in for the night. All I could think about as I drifted off to sleep, was how well Fumio would handle everything when we visit her tomorrow. I guess we'll all have to wait and see what tomorrow will hold.


	3. Realization and Launching

Time: Unknown

Date: Unknown

Location: Unknown

We can see that Fumio is currently tucked up in a bed wearing what seems to be hospital attire. There are no machines present in the room so the only sound that can be heard is that of Fumio's breathing. A Nurse then appears and enters the room on what seems to be her rounds, but all of a sudden Fumio starts to stir gaining the attention of the nurse as she walks over to see if there is anything wrong.

"mmmmm…..mmm uhhh… ugghhhh did someone get the plate of that truck" I said aloud as I struggled to open my eyes, but when I did open them properly I noticed I was somewhere completely different then my home. I started to move my head slowly and when I looked to the right of me I locked eyes with a Nurse who looked back and smiled at me before leaving the room.

I decided to sit upright and so I started move very slowly as I still ached all over. When I finally managed to get into a sitting position before seething in pain as I grabbed my head to stabilize it. ' _Man this sucks!'_ I yelled inwardly to myself.

It took me a few minutes before the pain started to subside, So I decided to then find out where I was. Something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention so I turned my head and saw a combination clock and calendar. I leaned over and picked it up and I saw what was displayed on it, 15:00 and it was August 10th.

With this information now know to me I went wide eyed in shock, it had been six days since I passed out. I started to panic but with a few deep breaths I managed to calm myself down. ' _It could be worse, I could have been out for a month'_ I said to myself before I started looking around the room some more.

I next decided to open the bedside window and let some fresh air into the room and the sight I saw was well worth it. Lilies of every type and colour were planted in the courtyard overlooking the bay, the sight stole my breath away not only because of the beauty of the sight but that fact that the Lily was my all time favourite flower.

After taking the sights in for a little while longer I looked back into the room and another object caught my eye, It was a full length mirror. So with some difficulty getting out of the bed I walked over slowly over and I expected to see my normal self but what I saw instead was a beautiful young girl wearing hospital attire staring back.

"I'm so sorry" I said bolting away from the mirror, but when no voice returned my apology I realized that something was really wrong. I walked back over to the mirror and saw the girl again, but now that I looked a little closer she seemed really familiar for some reason and only when I raised my arm to wave and the girl did the same thing, It was then that everything fell into place.

' _I'm the girl'_ I stuttered in horror as I backed away from the mirror and stumbled back onto the bed ' _How, why?'_ I started to question it was then that I grabbed my head in pain once more as memories with the consistency of a freight train came back revealing to me what had happened. ' _It was that blue light'_ I said now knowing the cause.

It was at this point that I couldn't hold it in anymore as I curled up into a ball and had a breakdown. My tears just wouldn't stop flowing as I just kept wondering why on earth this had happened to me causing me to cry even more at my predicament.

It was a good few minutes of crying, as I kept glancing at the clock, before a voice snapped me out of it "Fumio…." I looked up to see three people that I recognised and two that I didn't.

"Kaa-san, Onee-chan, Oba-san" I croaked out before starting to cry again as they rushed over and bear hugged me all at once with them starting to cry as well.

After roughly 30mins had passed Emika, Yoko and Aria had managed to calm down Fumio before Yoko took her to the bathroom to freshen up before Helping her back into her bed. It was then that Emika introduced the two people that Fumio didn't recognise and their names were Maxine and Zuihou. Emika then noticing that It was close to Lunchtime asked the two of them to go and get some lunch to which they Happily obliged and left the room.

Once they had come back and started to eat, Emika filled Fumio in with what had happened over the past six day since she passed out. Fumio was thankful for the information as now she was caught up with current events.

She still decided to ask how she had become kanmusu in the first place, but all she got in response was that no one had any idea as to why it had happened. Which made Fumio depressed again before being cheered up by Yoko.

With all of this new information that had been gathered Fumio decided to go to the restroom in order to think to herself for a bit. Even though she was still upset with what had happened to her, Fumio decided to take each day as it comes and eventually she hoped that she would ease into her new life as a Kanmusu even if she was now the most powerful one to date.

Fumio then returned back to her bed and looked out of the window at the lilies again in order to improve her mood a bit and it did but when she looked back at the others her eyes landed on Zuihou. She felt something very peculiar from the girl and it seemed familiar….

' _Could Zuihou-san be like me? I guess there is only one way to find out'_ I thought to myself before asking

"Zuihou-san, are you by chance a kanmusu as well?"

"Yes I'm a kanmusu, I belong to the Shouhou class aircraft carriers and I'm second in the class" she replied with me nodding in response "I'm also your Kaa-san's secretary ship" She added

"Cool, well it's nice to meet you Zuihou-san" I said holding out my hand to which she shook.

After we broke contact we all started then to have a bit off small talk and at one point nee-chan dragged me off to the Bathroom in order to teach me how to put on a bra properly as well as giving me some panties. Even though it felt weird putting a bra on I was grateful to the support it gave. I tried a few times with getting the bra on and off, I quickly managed to get the hang of it.

I then hugged my sister and thanked her for the help she gave me before I put back on the hospital gown leaving the bra and panties on seeing I was now comfortable wearing them, we left the bathroom and I hopped back into my bed with nee-chan sitting back down. It was then that Kaa-san decided to speak….

"Okay everyone we've had our fun but it's getting late and we have one more job to do before we leave" She then turned and looked at me before continuing

"Well, my dear what do you want your new name to be. The reason that I'm asking is that we can't call you Fumio anymore seeing as you are a girl now and we can't keep calling you A150 either"

It took me a few minutes to think of a new name but I finally decided.

"Kaa-san, I want to be called Izumi from now on" I said

"I see, you remembered didn't you about the fact that if you were born a girl in the first place that is what I would have named you"

"Yep" I smiled

"Well, Battleship Izumi has a nice ring to it as well seeing as the Izumi province was pretty close to the Yamato province and knowing that you are in the same class as Yamato it just makes sense" Auntie Aria said

The rest of us then looked at her weirdly before she looked up and noticed our starting.

"What?"

"Wow nee-chan didn't know you were such a history buff, but you are right it is a fitting name from that perspective" Kaa-san said

"I like it" I said

"Well then it's settled, from now on you are know as Battleship Izumi 1st ship of the Super-Yamato class!" Kaa-san exclaimed as cheers erupted all around.

"Okay now we really have to leave my dear. Tomorrow will be a big day for you as the Doctor is going to perform a full range of physical tests in the morning and then when we arrive in the afternoon we'll go and start basic Kanmusu training in order to get you started. So get a good night's sleep Izumi you hear me"

"I will Kaa-san" I said smiling

"Okay then goodnight my dear" Kaa-san said getting out of her chair and kissing me on the forehead.

"Goodnight everyone" I said as the group left the room and closed the door leaving me alone once more, but I was happy knowing that I had their help and support getting through this and with that thought fresh in my mind I got out of my bed and had a nice long soak in the bath before the nurse from earlier came in with some dinner for me.

I then hopped in bed and started to drift off into a blissful sleep already wanting for tomorrow to come with all of the excitement that it will bring.

The next day

Time: 07:00

I decided to wake up bright and early so as soon as some sunlight peeked through the curtains, I immediately sprang into action and opened the curtains and windows and took in a very deep breath of fresh air. After seeing the field of lilies once more I decided that the was the best start to a day that I'd had in a good long while.

It was then at this point I heard the door starting to open, so I turned my head and saw a doctor come in and I recognised her as the doctor Kaa-san mentioned to me before she left yesterday.

"Good morning, Doctor Mizu" I said in a cheerful tone

"Ara, ara well a very good morning to you too my dear" she replied walking over and handing me what seemed to be a bag of clothes

"Now Izumi could you please change into these clothes, before we get on to the tests. we don't want to keep your family waiting for this afternoon no do we?"

"Nope!" I said jumping out of my bed and heading into the bathroom to get changed.

It took me a few minutes before I came out and what I was wearing consisted of a pair of black thigh high socks, a blue pleated skirt, and a white t-shirt, as for my underwear they stayed the same. I also decided to put my hair up in a spiral side ponytail.

"Wow, you look adorable Izumi" Mizu said causing me to blush in response.

"Well let's go and do those test now shall we" she said starting to walk out of the room

"Right" I said happily putting on some slippers before following the doctor out of the room.

Well I must say I am most certainly surprised. The tests that I asked Izumi to perform seemed weird to her, but then I reminded her that these tests were for Kanmusu not regular humans. Once she got that into her head Izumi went along with it and despite the fact she had been inactive for a few days, she performed brilliantly. Once again proving to me that she was a very healthy girl.

I'm now currently waiting in the observation room waiting for the results of the tests to come through. I let Izumi leave seeing as I didn't want to bore her sitting around doing nothing.

The results then came through and as I looked through them, I could only say that I was utterly shocked, Izumi nevers ceases to amaze me. You see the first time a new ship girl performs these tests, It is within expectations that they would fail some parts of it on their first go, before they were encouraged to keep trying with the those parts of the test.

But Izumi on the other hand I can see why she is now known as the most powerful Kanmusu to date, she aced all of the tests with flying colours!

I decided to then go and find Izumi and tell her the good news, so I left the observation room and went to go and find her. Thankfully a nurse directed me to her location and I giggled to myself realising where she was.

I entered the courtyard at the rear of the hospital and just as the nurse had said there Izumi was sitting on a bench amongst the flowers. I made my way over to her and smiled at how peaceful she looked. I then decided to speak up…

"You seem happy Izumi"

"Yep, I asked one of the nurses if I could relax out here and well here I am" she replied cheerfully. I then sat down and put the papers on my side but as I went to look back at Izumi I saw her staring intently at the papers I had just put down.

"Curious are we?" I asked to which I got a vigorous head nodding in response

"Well you will be glad to know my dear, that what I have here is your test results"

Izumi then tensed up and I saw her become very anxious. I giggled at this getting a raised eyebrow from her

"Now, now don't worry. Your results came back all clear, you are perfectly fine" As I finished speaking Izumi then got up and did a little dance to show how happy she was. I then got her attention….

"Calm down my dear, remember that you have basic training this afternoon with your family and we wouldn't want to get you hurt now would we?" Izumi then went red faced in embarrassment. ' _my god she is adorable'_ I thought to myself "Let's go and get some lunch now shall we?"

After I heard the results of my tests coming back all clear from Doctor Mizu, I simply couldn't hide my excitement. But I had been calmed down by her in order to, as she put it, not hurt myself again.

The Doctor then suggested that we go to the cafeteria for lunch and so we did. when we arrived she said she'll go and get a seat as she had already had hers ordered earlier in the day for pickup. So as I was looking at the various menu's to decide what to eat, a poster had caught my eye.

It described the 10kg food challenge, I had to eat 10kgs of food in under an hour. I could add more if I wanted to but decided against it, as for the food that the challenge would be comprised of. That would be kept secret until the start of the challenge.

I then looked at the leaderboard to see what the rankings were like and to my surprise there was only one person that had completed the challenge. The name of this person was Akagi and she had a time of 56 mins 32 secs. This lit a fire in my belly so off I went to the cafeteria staff and said I would like to take the challenge.

They were shocked to say the least that another person wanted to try it, so they asked if I was sure that I wanted to do this. So I explained that I hadn't eaten properly in 6 days and was starving like mad. They understood this and told me to go and sit down for a bit whilst they prepare the food.

Once I sat down with the doctor I told her what I was about to do, she called me crazy and demanded me to call it off. But once she saw the fire in my eyes she knew I wasn't going to let this go, so she gave me her permission to take on the challenge.

It was a good half an hour before the food was ready and it seems word had traveled fast about my challenge as a massive crowd had gathered in the cafeteria. The food was then brought over by one of the staff members and what I saw was a huge pile of chicken curry that was then placed in front of me.

The timer was set to start as soon as I took my first bite. The tension in the room could almost be tasted as I took a deep breath and digged in. Due to how hungry I was I attacked the food with the voracity of a wild dog and by what seemed to have been only minutes had passed, to me anyway, the plate was empty.

When the time was revealed, since it was one of the rules that the timer had to be hidden, everyone roared in excitement seeing as not only had I beaten the current record I had smashed it by 13 mins with a time of 43 mins 23 secs.

The celebrations had then died down and my picture was put on the leaderboard in the no.1 spot, I had beaten this Akagi person and I was filled to the brim with pride over my victory. But alas the fun times had to end and know I had to go meet Kaa-san the others and start my Kanmusu training.

So I followed the Doctor to the main entrance where my family were already there waiting for the two of us. Doctor Mizu then told them about the stunt I pulled in the cafeteria and I saw to my surprise that Kaa-san, Auntie Aria, Max and Zuihou went wide-eyed in shock as their jaws hit the floor.

"EHHHHH! SHE BEAT AKAGI!" they yelled with doctor Mizu nodding in response, ' _Just who is this Akagi person anyway, is she a Kanmusu too?'_ I thought to myself.

Time: 13:30

Location: Kanmusu Training grounds

It took awhile before the shock finally wore off and by this time Zuihou had mentioned that we should be getting on with my training. So as a big group, Doctor Mizu included since she had never seen a Kanmusu train before, we all headed over to the training grounds.

Once we arrived my eyes went wide in shock and awe at just how big this place really was. There were static targets on a ground section and on the water there were tracks dedicated to speed and maneuverability, as well as more targets to shoot at.

It then dawned on me how hard this 'basic' training would be, especially for someone like me who had only become a Kanmusu recently. I pretty much froze on the spot refusing to budge, but with a little coaxing from everyone they managed to get me moving again.

Before the training could actually began however Kaa-san had asked me to change into my proper uniform, so to speak, that she had gotten made for me whilst I was knocked out. So off to the changing room I went, besides as Yoko had pointed out I needed to get used to wearing it anyway seeing I will be wearing for most of the time when I'm active on missions.

My new outfit comprised from top to bottom, a headgear in the shape of a lily in bloom with my hair in the same style it was earlier going through it on the left side of my head, my bra and panties remained the same, around my neck was a collar that had a solid bit that was level with my chin and it had a golden button adorned with a cherry blossom.

The rest of the outfit surprised me though, as it was something that I had worn in the past *Grumbles* Yoko *grumbles* but to be honest I really liked it seeing as it was a red and white lolita style Kimono dress with inverse coloured swirls across the dress with the look being finished with a black and red Obi going around my waist with a bow on the rear with the strands going past the bottom of the dress.

The theme continued down below with my just below knee length leggings except the bows were on the front, there were a few of them too, underneath that were a pair of calf high white socks and finally on my feet I had metal zori sandals coloured the way ship's hull was with a grey top and a red bottom. According to Zuihou who had come in to check on how I was doing the zori sandals reminded her of a shorter version, heightwise, of the ones that Akagi and Kaga wore.

Yet another person I didn't know, this time it was someone called Kaga. Man I really have to learn who these people are before I make a mockery of myself if I ever meet them.

After leaving the changing rooms with Zuihou and heading back to the training grounds, I was immediately glomped by Yoko with her squealing in glee on how cute I looked at the moment. She then left and I looked where she was going and took notice that Kaa-san and the others, minus Max-san for some reason, had gone over and taken positions in what seemed to be an open air observation platform. Zuihou then went to the sidelines whilst I went to the position marked in front of me and then I waited a bit before my mom spoke.

"Okay now Izumi the first part of the training is going to be outfit testing, so when you are ready my dear please summon your outfit" It took me a few tried but with some advice from Zuihou I managed to successfully summon my outfit and then I saw them.

Everyone in the room including myself went silent in shock, wonder and quite a bit of fear at the firepower I now had in my possession. I was especially fearful due to the fact that this was the first time I had seen my outfit up close. It also had something to do with that whilst I was becoming a Kanmusu, I was in too much pain to really take any notice.

But eventually I dug down deep and gulped as I knew I had to press on with the testing. All I had to do thankfully was making sure that every part operated smoothly without any restraint, especially my turrets and gun barrels.

After a good few minutes of turning my turrets in all directions, It was now time to move on to the next part of the training. This was the part of the training that I feared the most, learning how to move and fire on the water.

Once again I had to be coaxed by the others with Zuihou doing some arm pulling and eventually I was on the water, but to be honest it felt I was wearing roller skates for the first time again as I had no sense of balance as my legs had buckled a bit in order to keep me steady.

Eventually though, with the help of holding out my arms to steady myself, I managed to properly stand up straight and I knew that it was time to move on to the next part. This time with the mental image of myself learning to roller blade I started off moving slow at first, but I eventually started to gain speed and pretty soon I was moving across the water like a pro.

But I was starting to get weary and I knew somehow that I was low on fuel, so I called for a break to which Kaa-san permitted so that I could relax for a bit and refuel.

As I sat down Zuihou passed me a beer sized can of fuel, seeing as I needed it, and I thanked her as she took her own seat beside me. I decided to strike up a conversation with Zuihou about what it's like being a secretary ship. She told me it was mostly mundane stuff such as paperwork, but things got really lively whenever Kaa-san did some really silly, to which she yelled over the radio in embarrassment.

It was now time for the firing part of the training, but just before I went back on the water Yoko mentioned to me that there seemed to be a catapult on the back of my outfit. I got curious and seeing as there was a catapult there must be some planes as well and sure enough I sensed four planes on either side of it.

As I thanked nee-chan for the information, I made a mental note to ask Zuihou about the planes after the shooting part of the training. So back on the water I went for the last, or should I say second to last, part of the training.

As I got into a suitable Firing position, Auntie spoke over the radio….

"Now Izumi there is four targets within your line of fire, one for each turret. It doesn't matter if you don't hit them all but please be careful okay" hearing this made me relax a little and so I started to concentrate on a loading a full salvo of rounds.

Once I heard the satisfying clunk of 8 barrels being successful loaded, I took a few deep breaths before taking the shot.

And sure enough with the word " **FIRE!** " coming from Izumi's mouth, the thunderous roar of eight 510mm cannons came to life as they released their payload toward their respective targets. Everyone present had to cover their ears at the sound that was produced. Yoko even had to roll out of the way as a pane of glass in front of her shattered, just like many others had, that made up the training room. Thankfully much to her own relief she didn't get hurt.

Once the sound had finally died down, everyone peered out of their hiding places and looked around. When they saw Izumi she was trying to stand strong, but they all saw that her legs were betraying her as they were shaking as if they were jelly.

Everyone then decided to look over at where the targets should have been but all they could see was white smoke. It took a while before the smoke had cleared and what they saw made their jaws drop and their eyes go wide, even Izumi was stunned silent as she saw the carnage she had wrought. as the targets were not only destroyed but the stands they were placed went along with them.

Silence had fallen upon the room, no one dared speak as what they saw before them was a truly terrifying but also a very awe inspiring sight. Izumi had not once, not twice but now three times that she was the most powerful Kanmusu to exist at this point in time.

Eventually though everyone started to go back to some semblance of normalcy and decided to give Izumi the praise that she deserved for pulling off what she had done today. With that part of the test concluded Emika decided to it was time to pack up and leave, but for Izumi she had other ideas.

"Kaa-san, we can't leave just yet"

"And why is that my dear" she replied turning around

"Well thanks to Yoko-nee pointing this out to me earlier before the firing test, I have a question for you Zuihou" I said

"What question would that be Izumi" she replied

"Could you please teach me the concept of launching and retrieving planes, seeing as I have my own to use"

"You have planes Izumi?" nee-chan asked

"Yep, sure do" I replied before turning around and showing them what Yoko-nee had described to me earlier.

"Yep, she sure does have planes alright. Any idea what type they are Izumi?" Zuihou asked

"Type-0 observation planes" I replied

"Well she is a Yamato-class after all, those planes were pretty much present most of the time" Auntie Aria said

"Okay then Izumi, this is the last part of your training. Lets launch some planes" Zuihou said cheerfully.

She then instructed me on how to launch my planes, which involved the raising of the catapult, then using a crane to place one of the planes on it, waiting then for a fairy to appear, letting her enter the plane and then start it up and finally with a simple mental flick of a switch the plane was then launched.

We watched the plane fly around for a while before it landed on the water and thus the retrieval part of the training began. For this part I had to use a crane that was attached to the end of the catapult to bring the plane up, before another took over and put it safely away in the outfit, then lastly I folded the catapult back down and made sure it was secure. I then breathed a sigh of relief as the training was now finally over.

By this time however it was starting to get pretty close to dinnertime, so once I freshened up in the bathroom Kaa-san took us to what seemed to be the conference room that they had mentioned to me yesterday.

But before we ordered our food Max had come back to join us seeing as she had to leave before my training had started. So whilst Auntie Aria made the phone call to order the food, mainly for me due to my appetite but also Zuihou as well, the rest of us filled her in on what happened during the training she was absent for.

"Wow, you are over powered Izumi!" Max said

"Yep, I think I'll call you pint sized pocket rocket from now" Yoko-nee teased

"Nee-chan!" I yelled

"Alright you two calm down, food will be here soon" Kaa-san said

""Hai"" we said in unison before calming down.

It was roughly 20 mins before the food arrived and we all immediately got stuck in. We mostly talked about random stuff, but what caught my attention was that Auntie Aria had remained silent for most of it. But what she said next to me would be nothing that I would have imagined.

"Okay, I know we're all enjoying ourselves at the moment. but there is one last very important thing that we need to take care of before we turn in for the night" She then turned towards me and said "Okay now Izumi, I'm going to be pretty blunt with you It's time for you to decide which fleet you want to be assigned to"

When those words left Auntie's mouth I was pretty speechless, I never had thought that far in terms of what fleet I wanted to be assigned too and now thanks to her questioning about it, I was in a really tough spot.

It was then, thankfully, that Zuihou had noticed my troubles and decided to speak about my Kaa-san's fleet, Max then followed telling me about the various fleets she had visited whilst on patrols.

Then lastly Auntie Aria then spoke about her own fleet that she was the admiral of and pretty told me what the others had said but from her own fleet's perspective.

With all of this information now in hand, I decided to leave the room for awhile in order to mull over what I had learned and also to make my final decision on where I wanted to be assigned.

After thinking things through for a good 30 mins I headed back into the conference room and took my seat, I pondered for a few more minutes before I decided to speak up.

"Okay everyone, before I make my decision I have a question to ask if that's okay"

"Of course my dear, we'll answer to the best of our abilities" Kaa-san said

"Okay then, which fleet has Yamato in it?" I asked

"That would be mine, I have Yamato, Musashi and a recent addition Shinano" Auntie Aria said.

Hearing that all of my sister ships were all in one place made me go starry eyed in excitement and as as result of my Auntie's words my decision was made. So I got out of my chair and walked over to where my auntie was sitting.

"Then I officially request that I Battleship Izumi be assigned to your fleet, Admiral Miyanaga" I said saluting her causing everyone else in the room to go wide-eyed in shock

"May I ask why" Auntie said as she composed herself

"Well the main reason, is that I want to see my sister ships and get along with them, I also want to meet and get to know more ship girls in general. The second reason I have is that I would be like to be close to family and be comfortable with someone I know, rather being in a fleet where I don't know the person in charge" I replied looking at my aunt with hope.

It took a little bit before Aria spoke up once more.

"Well big sis, it's your call" she said smirking as she put her sister in the spotlight.

Emika could only sigh at her sister's antics, she was just as bad as Yoko teasing Izumi.

"Well Izumi, is this what you really want?" she asked

"Yes, I want to help beat back the Abyssal threat" Izumi replied

Seeing the determination in her daughter's eyes, she chuckled to herself remembering the same things that the ship girls of her own fleet had said when they first started out. Emika then thought long and hard and then finally came to a decision.

"Okay, Battleship Izumi from this moment forth you are hereby assigned to Admiral Miyazaki's Fleet, you have one week to get your affairs in order before being sent out to the front lines. Do I make myself clear"

"Yes Ma'am" she replied saluting once more

"Admiral Miyanaga, do you accept these conditions?"

"I fully accept and take responsibility for Battleship Izumi joining my fleet Rear-Admiral" Aria said also saluting.

"Good, we will start taking care of the paperwork tomorrow, so for now let's celebrate by eating some god damn deserts, I've been waiting all day for this" she barked

"Yes Ma'am" all of them said before resorting to laughing with Emika joining in.

The celebrating didn't last very long after that with everyone starting to feel quite sleepy, so after a quick clean up of the room, Kaa-san's group went back to the hotel whilst I went back to my room in the hospital seeing as I hadn't been fully discharged yet by Doctor Mizu. As I climbed into bed and started to drift off to sleep, I smiled at that fact on how well today had gone for me and the others and now I was looking forward to what the future may bring.


	4. Joining the fleet

Time: 09:00

Date: 18th August

Location: Helipad

The past week has been absolute hell for me. Paperwork I goddamn hate paperwork, I thought my hand would fall off due to the amount that I had to sign. But it had to be done in order to signify that I would be officially assigned to my Auntie's fleet. Speaking of Auntie since she was ahead of me on the paperwork, damn she was fast, she had left and went back to her fleet to tell them of a 'big surprise' would be coming soon.

I swear that Auntie saying 'big surprise' was a jab at me somehow and it really irritated me to no end. *sighs* Anyways I was now waiting on the helipad on top the hospital with my Kaa-san, Yoko-nee, Max and Zuihou waiting for a helicopter that would take me to Niigata.

I had phoned ahead to Auntie to let her know that I didn't want to be picked up and taken to the island straight away once I got to Niigata as I wanted to explore and familiarise myself beforehand. Auntie understood completely and she said that is was good to familiarise myself since I would probably be going there on shopping trips that happen regularly.

Auntie then went on to say that when I was ready to head to the island, I should go to Hakusan station where a train will be waiting to take me at anytime to the island. I was happy with what she had told and was looking forward to seeing everyone at the base.

It was about 15 mins later before the helicopter showed up and landed on the helipad, but due to some delays during the flight the pilot had to refuel for a good 10 mins or so.

"Okay my dear, please be safe and make sure to listen to your Aunt okay" Kaa-san said Hugging me one last time

"I will" I responded

"And don't you dare forget to write" Yoko-nee said wiping away some tears

"Don't worry sis I will"

"Good luck kiddo and kick some Abyssal ass for me" Max said getting a giggle out of everyone and Lastly it was Zuihou's turn to which I went over to her and gave her a hug and said

"Thank you for teaching me everything Zuihou" she blushed in response and replied "You are most welcome Izumi"

I then broke off the hug and a last minute picture was taken with all of us to remember this moment and then the helicopter's rotors started to spin up signalling that it was time to leave.

After another round of goodbyes, hugs and kisses, I boarded the helicopter with my luggage and took a window seat and with one final wave from both parties the doors closed and the helicopter took off.

"Well there she goes" I said blowing my nose

"Don't worry Kaa-san she will be fine I promise, Auntie Aria will watch over her in our stead" Yoko said reassuringly whilst rubbing my back

"Okay let's head back inside, it's getting windy" Max said

We all followed her inside and headed to the cafeteria and we all got some hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. As I took a sip of my drink and said to myself ' _Fair winds and following seas Izumi"_

Location: Skies over Niigata Airport

Time: 12:00

Man saying goodbye to my family and friends really sucks, I was crying for a good 5 mins before I calmed myself down. Once I did though, I pulled out a book from my bag and started to read. Eventually though I got bored of that as well and so I resorted to looking out of the window and taking pictures of the passing landscape.

Okay what was to be a trip that would have lasted just over an hour has nearly lasted two, according to the pilot there had been a screw up at the air traffic control center and we had been put into a holding pattern waiting for permission to be granted so that we could land. It did give me a chance however to plan out my trip around Niigata.

"Okay this is the pilot speaking, sorry for the delay we will be landing shortly" the pilot spoke through the intercom snapping me out of my thoughts.

' _Finally'_ I said happily to myself as I made sure the my seatbelt was buckled properly. We then landed a few minutes later and so I unbuckled myself, grabbed my luggage and then left the helicopter quickly. Seeing as soon as I got clear of it, it took off again going over to the nearby fuel yard if I remembered what the pilot said correctly.

There was a airport bus waiting nearby, so I hopped onto it and a few minutes later I entered the main terminal. Now seeing as I had to wait a little while before being cleared by airport security, I decided that I may as well get something to eat in the waiting area. So I did.

It took half an hour before I was given clearance and with that now given, I made haste and left the airport. I called for a taxi and waited a little bit before it arrived, I got in and told the driver where I wanted to go which was Niigatakengotoku Shrine. The reason I chose the shrine it because that it was close to the train station where I would be heading later in the day in order to head to the island.

It was at this point during the taxi ride that I sent my Auntie a text message that I was on my way to start exploring the area, I then close my phone and looked out of the window at the cityscape was passing by.

*buzz* *buzz* *buzz*

' _Hmmm'_ I said to myself before noticing my phone was going off, I picked it up to see I had a text message from of all people Izumi. It seems she arrived safely to which I smiled happily.

"Is something the matter Admiral?" a voice asked

"Yes everything is okay Ryuujou, you see my niece is coming to visit today, which I've told everyone about" ' _I'm Thankful that the real reason has still not come to light, at least not yet'_

"She just texted me to say she arrived safely but was delayed at the airport due to landing issues" I groaned at this because I knew how notorious that damn airport was with screwing up landing permissions for aircraft even on a good day.

"She is now starting her own tour around the city till she's ready before heading to the train station and then she'll head here" she finished saying.

"I can't wait to meet her" Ryuujou said excitedly to which I giggled in response at her antics and I couldn't help but smirk looking forward to how all of my ship girls would react when the truth became known.

The past couple of hours since I arrived at the shrine, has been amazing. My tour around Niigata was full of sights, sounds, and food, my god the food. I also at one point, due to what I was wearing, I was confused for a shrine maiden. However I decided it was time to head to the island so off I went to the local Hakusan Train station, where Auntie said a private train would be waiting for me.

I entered the station and headed over to the designated platform, where to my surprise I saw an old friend. ' _A KiHa 25 It's been a while and it's even in sado Island livery to boot, nice touch. Thank god I still have all of those operation manuals stored on my laptop never know when I might need em''_ I said to myself giving the DMU a once over. But then I noticed something weird, there was no driver present and the DMU was locked down.

So off I went into the station in order to find someone, hopefully the station master, that could tell me what had happened to the driver.

"Hawawawa…. I finally made it back" I said to myself as I took a seat on a bench. Hi there my name is Inazuma, a short brown haired and eyed girl. Also I'm pretty well known as one of the very first ship girls alongside Houshou-san, Samidare and Yuubari.

Now I bet you are wondering as to why I'm here resting at the train station. Well by the Admiral's order I was to wait here for her niece to arrive and escort her to the Island. Thankfully my Admiral had provided a photo of what her niece looked like so that I could find her easier.

But seeing as I had some time before hand, since I came early with the driver, I went to the nearby sweet shop to pick up some of my favourite chocolates for me and my sisters back at base.

I have now been waiting 5 minutes inside the station on the lookout for this girl and then I spot her walking away from what seemed to be the Station master with a complexed look on her face. So I decided to follow her and get her attention somehow.

"Well now this is just great, just freaking great. Well I can't blame the woman for rushing off to a family emergency, but would it kill her to call for a replacement driver" I said out loud to no one in particular.

You see I had just gotten back from talking with the station master and she informed me that the driver had indeed had rushed out of the station on a family emergency, but since there was no replacement driver available and she didn't have a number for the base. Which meant that I was screwed, partially anyway.

' _I guess I'll have drive the train myself, but first I should phone Auntie to let her know what has happened'_ I said to myself, but I was pulling my phone out in order to make the call, a voice got my attention

"Excuse me, are you Izumi-san?" I then looked up and saw a short, brown haired and eyed girl, wearing a sailor uniform

"Yes that is me and may I ask who is speaking please" I asked in a polite manner

"Hawawa…. I'm sorry my name is Inazuma and I have been asked by your Aunt to escort you to the island" She replied

"Well that's very nice of you Inazuma-san but we have a major problem that needs immediate attention"

"And what is this problem?" she asked

"Well we have no driver, she had to leave immediately for a family emergency and there is no other driver present that can take us to the Island" I replied

"Hawawa, that's not good what do we do!?" Inazuma said starting to panic

"Easy there Inazuma-san I'll just call me Auntie to see if we can get some help from their end" I said calming her down before pulling my phone out again.

But just as I flipped the lid of the phone, the screen went dead and no matter which button I pushed my phone was having none of it.

"Ah crap, phone's out of juice. Inazuma-san you wouldn't happen to bring a phone of your own did you?" I asked but all I got was her shaking her head in response

"I guess it's time for plan B then" I said pulling out my laptop and bringing up the manual for the KiHa.

"What's plan B?" Inazuma asked puzzled

"Well I take control of the train and take the two of us back to the Island" I replied

"EHHHHHHH!" Inazuma Yelled

"Well it's either we take the train ourselves, or freeze our butts off on the platform after we make a call using the station phone" I said, Inazuma then quickly agreed with the former plan then the latter.

"Well then I've read what I've needed to read, so Inazuma-san please wait here whilst I get the keys for the train" I said getting up off the bench, putting my laptop away and then I headed into the station to find the station master.

I then came back with the keys and with Inazuma in tow, we went to the No.1 end of the train and entered the cab with me taking the driver's seat and Inazuma sitting on the opposite side.

After a short while of making sure the train was set up correctly, I called into the station and said that we were ready to depart, It took a few moments for the station master to respond with the all clear signal and with that I slowly increased power and the train lurched forward leaving the station.

I then quickly studied the map and saw that we had to head down the mainline for a little while but when we reached a certain railway junction, we had to take the left rail that led to the overground section.

Inazuma meanwhile was looking around in awe out of the cab windscreen, as it looked like she had never seen the city from a cabin view before whilst I could only giggle to myself, a short while later we reached ground level again and we had to stop for a little while in order to use the trestle bridge leading to the island.

It didn't take long for clearance to be granted and so we started to cross the trestle bridge,

"Just this bit and around the coast and we're home free Inazuma-san" I said increasing power a bit,

"Yep" she said in response as I blew the horn.

Time: 15:00

Location: Sadio Island rail station

"Where are they" I asked in a worried tone, you see both Izumi and Inazuma were supposed to be here over 30 mins ago and I couldn't get ahold of them to see what had happened

"Don't worry Admiral, I'm sure they'll be here….. Oh look here comes the train now" Ryuujou pointed out. I looked in the direction she was looking at and just as she had said there was the train coming into view, however there was something wrong.

' _Why is Izumi driving the train, something really must have happened'_ I said to myself as the train pulled into the station and the two of them got out, but there was no driver with them ' _Okay, something must have happened'_

"Hi Auntie, we both arrived safely" Izumi said cheerfully.

But I was having none of that so I went over and hugged both of them asking just what had happened. Once I released the two of them from my hug, Izumi went on to explain, with input from Inazuma, that the driver had left the station for an emergency, there was no replacement driver there, her phone had died and lastly she made the decision to drive the train and bring the two of them back to base.

"Well I'm glad that the two of you are safe" I said hugging them again before continuing "But that driver will have a stern talking too, once she gets back about breaking protocol" I said filing away a mental note to pursue the matter at a later time.

Inazuma then had to leave us, due to her being needed for an expedition soon. But just as she was leaving Izumi stopped her and handed over a massive bag of sweets to which Inazuma burst out crying and leaped on Izumi giving her a hug saying thank you over and over again. Once Izumi calmed her down, off she went leaving the three of us on the platform.

"Well you sure made a friend quickly didn't you Izumi" I said smirking

"Yeah I did and I hope to make many more whilst I'm here maybe starting with Ryuujou-san over there" Izumi replied giggling to herself

"Ummm I didn't introduce myself yet, how did you know my name already Izumi-san" Ryuujou said with Izumi pointing at me, Ryuujou then understood quite quickly as to what she was referring to.

"Okay well now that the first of many introductions are now over, let's get that tour started shall we" I said with a spring in my step.

The tour started where they were standing, which was the Train yard which was pretty self explanatory for the group. So off they went to the next area which included the resource generators and warehouse, Izumi just couldn't help herself from nibbling on a lump of bauxite getting a giggle from Aria and a look of confusion from Ryuujou before they moved on.

The next place on tour was Houshou's cafe this got Izumi really excited, as even if she didn't show it earlier when she met Inazuma, meeting one of the very first ship girls was an honour and now that there was another 1st generation ship girl on base made Izumi go hyper with excitement at wanting to meet her. But alas that would have to wait until another time.

The next place on the tour was the dorms and pretty much as soon as Izumi caught sight of the destroyer dorms, her jaw hit the floor over how massive the place was. The school building was nearby but seeing as there were classes on at the moment, that part of the tour would have to wait until another day.

As the group was walking to the next destination, ship girls could be seeing everywhere doing their own things on the base whether it would be going on sorties, as Izumi saw Inazuma heading out with her group, or just having general chit-chat. But when Izumi saw a specific person she bolted and went ahead leaving behind a very confused Ryuujou and a giggling Aria.

As I saw the Admiral and secretary ship Ryuujou with another girl walking past, I got curious as to what was going on, But when the girl Looked at me she bolted and ran to god knows where. However that girl had intrigued me somehow.

' _Who was that girl, even though I got a brief glimpse of her when she passed by for some reason I feel that I should know her from somewhere but where?'_ I thought to myself.

"Yamato are you okay?" A voice said snapping me out of my musing

"Yes Yahagi I'm fine just thinking about somethings" I replied

Izumi was currently catching her breath, counting her blessing that Yamato hadn't fully caught on to her at this point. It was then she grabbed some water from a fountain and saw that Aria and Ryuujou had caught up, Thus the tour continued.

The next place caused Izumi to start drooling uncontrollably and that place was Mamiya's sweet shop. The smells coming from inside was intoxicating to Izumi seeing as she had a major sweet tooth. Ryuujou had to pull her away in fear as it looked like Izumi was about to raid the shop at any moment.

The next two places on the tour was the docks, which had been modeled after a very traditional japanese bath house, and a place that confused Izumi. Akashi's Arsenal was based in a small warehouse type building, now she didn't know who Akashi was at this point or even what an arsenal does. But Aria had said to forget it for now and move on.

Meanwhile it seemed that the whole base was alight with rumours flying around about the mysterious girl that had been seen walking around with their Admiral and Ryuujou. Everyone was curious and wanted to know, but all that was settled when Inazuma reminded everyone that the Admiral's niece was visiting for few days. It took a little while for everyone to remember what the Admiral had said a few days prior before another huge conversation erupted.

This is what exactly Aria had wanted them to think about Izumi but it still was only half the reason why she was here and that was gonna be revealed a little later in the day.

The tour was then finished via a quick going over the Main HQ. Izumi saw where everything was located including the comms/radar room, where a girl unknown to Izumi was stationed, recreation room, war room and lastly the Admiral's office. This point due to being on her feet for a large amount of the day, Izumi couldn't stand any longer and she collapsed on the couch whist Aria and Ryuujou sat at their respective desks.

"So what do you think of the base Izumi?" Auntie asked

"I love this place already, and I can't wait to get settled down for the long haul" I immediately covered my mouth at my mistake with Auntie going wide-eyed at my slip-up.

"Long-haul? Admiral I thought you said she was only staying for a few days" Ryuujou said staring half-lidded at Auntie causing her to sweat drop.

"Ah screw it, she was bound to find out eventually, heck I already think that Yamato has caught on as well" I said getting up off the couch gaining Ryuujou's attention

"What are you talking about Izumi-san?" she asked confused

"Let me formally introduce myself, I am the fourth ship of the Yamato class and the first ship of the Super-Yamato class, Battleship Izumi at your service, I have been assigned to this fleet and it will be a pleasure working with you Ryuujou-san" I said before sitting down once more.

Ryuujou didn't respond at first as she took in all of the new information that she had just learned and when it finally clicked….

"EHHHHHH, your niece is a ship girl!?" She yelled luckily no one else was in the building barring the various fairies that were flying around. Auntie could only face fault whilst I was laughing on the couch at her reaction.

"Yes, that is correct Ryuujou my niece is and will be the most powerful ship girl on the base from now on. However with this information that you have now been made aware of, you are not to speak of it to anyone until after the reveal at dinner time and that is an order, do I make myself perfectly clear" Auntie said in a stern tone.

"Yes Ma'am" Ryuujou replied standing up and saluting.

We then spent most of our time in the office, with me being put to work sorting out my arch-nemesis, paperwork. I swear my poor hand is really going to fall off this time.

Even so I was thankful to Auntie for allowing to work in her office, because if I remembered correctly from what Kaa-san had told me, is that Secretary ships are changed at the Admiral's discretion and so there was a chance that I may become one someday. So this was a perfect chance to learn the tricks of the trade so to speak.

It seemed that time was at a standstill for us, because we were only snapped out of our work when my tummy decided to let out a Lion's roar. Startling the three us and when we checked the clock we realised that it was time for dinner.

"Well I guess I know where we are going next" Auntie said giggling uncontrollably. Thankfully we had tore through almost all of the paperwork that needed to be done, so we all left the office and made our way to the cafeteria.

Once we arrived I saw that everyone else was here in their own groups chatting away with each then went and got our food before we headed over to Auntie's table and started to tuck into our food.

I could honestly feel as if I was being watched, so I spared a quick glance behind me and indeed it was Yamato doing the staring. ' _It seems that the time is nigh'_ I said to myself as I continued to eat.

' _I just can't get that girl out of my head, just who is she?'_ I thought to myself. But eventually my curiosity finally got the better of me, so I got out of my seat and….

"This Musashi asks where you are going Yamato"

"Are you okay nee-san" Shinano asked

"Don't worry you two, I'm just going to see the admiral about something, I have a question that needs answering" I replied before heading in the direction of the Admiral's table.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Yamato was making her way over here, I then saw Izumi and Ryuujou take a quick glance before turning to each other and they both smirked. The two of them including me then knew what she was going to ask, Yamato then arrived before speaking….

"Admiral May I ask a question?"

"You may" I replied

"I know that thanks to Inazuma-san that this person is your niece. But for some reason she seems really familiar, maybe she can enlighten me as to why I feel this way" she said pointing at Izumi

"Well my dear niece do you want to tell everyone who you really are?" I asked

"Of course, Admiral" She replied standing up.

"Okay then, attention everyone I have an announcement to make" I said causing the Cafeteria to quiet down gaining everyone's attention.

"Now before I begin can Musashi and Shinano please stand beside Yamato" I asked to which the two of them did

"Okay good, now all of you know that Izumi here is my niece correct and that she will be staying a while?" everyone nodded in response

"Well that was only half-truth" everyone became shocked at my admittance

"Now, now the rest of that truth will be revealed to you all now, Izumi please introduce yourself"

"As you wish Admiral, Hello everyone allow me to introduce myself I am the fourth ship of the Yamato class and the first Ship of the Super-Yamato class, Battleship Izumi at your service and I do hope that we can all get along" She said causing the whole room barring myself and Ryuujou to go wide-eyed in shock about what they had just heard.

"EHHHHHHHHHH!" Everyone screamed together

Izumi then went over to where Inazuma was sitting with her group and then bowed and said

"Inazuma-san I'm sorry for keeping my true nature from you but I was forbade by the Admiral to reveal that information until now, I hope you can forgive me."

"Hawawawa…. It's okay Izumi-san I understand we all have secrets that we need to keep" She said before getting up and hugging her

"Thank you Inazuma-san" they hugged for a few moments before separating and Izumi headed back to the table.

Now everyone knew the legends of the Yamato class trio, but now that an even greater legend was standing with them it can be said that some were really sceptical about whether or not Izumi was telling the truth.

As I started to get comfortable again, I was grateful to Inazuma-san for understanding, ' _I must get her some sweets sometime'._ It was then that I heard footsteps coming from behind me, so I turned around and saw my sister ships standing there before one of then decided to speak….

"Ummm Izumi-san, is it really true about you saying that you are a yamato class?" Shinano asked

"Why do you ask nee-san, do you not believe me, do you require some proof of what I said" I said acting being hurt by her words

"Oh I'm sorry for making you upset, please don't cry" Shinano said trying to calm me down but then…

"Nah, I'm okay I'm just screwing around with ya sis. If you want proof then proof you shall get as long as it's okay with the Admiral of course" I said, shocking the three girls with my rapid personality changes and acting skills.

"Go stand over there and summon your outfit, but for the love of god please do not fire your cannons in here" Auntie said pointing to an empty space in the cafeteria.

"Okay, will do" I said going over to the empty spot with all eyes in the room concentrating on me, then as with all the previous times I had done this, once more the massive cannons appeared on my back. Once again shocking everyone, that didn't know, at the size of them.

"Is this enough proof nee-chan, everyone?" I said moving the turrets around a little, seeing as they were a little stiff before putting away my outfit.

This had settled any doubts the rest of the ship girls in the room had and as for

the three of them, they conversed for a few moments before walking over to me and the three of them then hugged me all at once

"Welcome back to the family little sister" Yamato said

"Yeah It's good to be back" I said in return, after the moment had finished Auntie had barked about everyone needing to finish their dinner before turning in for the night and so everyone went back to their respective tables to finish their meals.

Once the cleanup had finished and everyone had started to head back to the dorms Auntie had told me that I will stay in a spare room in the main building until a room is made available for me in the battleship dorms.

So after having a bath with my sisters they went their separate ways with me heading straight to my room. I hopped into bed taking a little while before falling asleep, but one thing I did know is that I was going to love being here with everyone.


	5. First day & shopping?

Time: 06:00

Date: August 19th

Location: Izumi's Temporary bedroom

*BEEP**BEEP**BE-**CLICK*

*Yawns*

Today was going to be a good day, seeing as it is going to be my first day as an active ship girl. But that doesn't mean I can neglect my daily exercises that had been outlined for me by Doctor Mizu. So out of bed I got and I changed into my tracksuit, making note that I really didn't have the many clothes to my name.

' _I've got to ask Auntie, if I can go on a shopping trip soon to get some more'_ I thought to myself as I left my room.

After leaving the building I made my way over to the train station, where I arrived at the base yesterday. The reason why I'm doing this is that I'm making a running route for me to follow, so I can better familiarise myself with the base and not get lost in it.

The run had lasted a good 30 mins and I was now currently in the middle of performing my post-run stretches in order to get rid of the aches and pains that had accumulated during the run. Speaking of the run the route I had made around the base satisfied me immensely because first off I had reinforced my memory on where everything on the base was, as well as finding new places, such as the archery range, that had not been made known to me on the tour yesterday.

Once my stretches were over I decided to head back to my room to fetch some things that I needed, but just as I passed Houshou-san's cafe the lights came on and out of the door popped Houshou-san herself. It seemed like she was getting started for the day.

"Good Morning Miss Houshou" I said gaining her attention

"Ara, ara a very good morning to you too Izumi-san to what do I owe this pleasure of your visit" She replied in a motherly tone.

"I just finished my morning exercises and was heading back to my room, before you came out and started setting up for the day" I happily replied

"Well, it seems someone is an early riser, would you like to come inside for a nice warm drink?" She asked gesturing to the inside of her shop, it didn't take long for me to come up with an answer.

"Yes, I would love too Houshou-san"

"Then go on ahead of me my dear and pick a seat, I'll be there in a moment" she said but I was having none of that and helped Houshou-san finish setting up much faster than she could do on her own.

"Why thank you for your help my dear, that was much appreciated. Now let's head inside shall we" Houshou said walking ahead of me

"You are most welcome and yes let's head inside" I replied following behind her.

Once I had entered the building my eyes went wide with awe and wonder, everywhere she looked reminded her of being right back at home, the whole place seemed to exude a homely aura and this gave me a very relaxed feeling as I walked over to one of the seats next to the counter.

"What would you like to drink Izumi-san?" Houshou said snapping me out of my trance-like state

"Ummm, some earl-grey tea please if you have any" I replied

"Very well, one earl-grey coming right up" Houshou-san said as she started brewing the tea

During this time I decided to ask Houshou-san about her time as the very first ship girl, as the tea had finished brewing Houshou-san had handed it to me and then she began to tell stories of her adventures, fraught with battles, training and getting used to the acknowledgment as a capable force against the Abyssals from all across the world.

Whilst Houshou-san was telling her tales I was wide-eyed in wonder and amazement been told, by the time she had finished her stories. I had gone through at least 3 cups of tea and some cakes, but for me that didn't matter at all listening to the stories was invaluable as I had learned many things about how the Kanmusu's came to be and how they had developed into what they are today.

"Wow, Houshou-san those were some wonderful stories" I said

"You are most welcome Izumi-san, you are always welcome to hear some more when you have the chance too" she replied

"I would love Houshou-san, but alas I must leave now and head to the bathhouse and then get changed for whatever Auntie has planned for me today, so I must bid you adieu for now Houshou-san" I said getting ready to leave

"Well I will see you soon I guess, so goodbye for now Izumi-san" Houshou-san replied

Once Izumi-san had left, I cleaned up the plates and cups she had used but putting them back on their respective shelves. I must admit Izumi-san is a very well mannered young lady and I will admit I've taken a shine to her. She just gives me the same feelings that Akagi and Kaga as well as the rest of the aircraft carriers give off when I look after them.

' _Who knows, I may just end up doting on her as well'_ I thought as I giggled myself

"Houshou, you in there?" a voice said snapping me out of my musings

"Welcome, Admiral and what can I get for you today"

After I had left the cafe I went and proceeded to do exactly what I said I'll do, first was a nice long hot bath to which I thoroughly enjoyed and then I headed back to the main building making note of the fact that many ship girls were starting to wake-up, or in the case of Sendai, she was a really funny girl, going to sleep since she primarily did night patrol runs. Once I had reached my room I proceeded to get changed in a timely fashion and was soon standing at the door to the admiral's office.

"Come in" I said before she could knock on the door and so Izumi entered the office

"Battleship Izumi reporting for duty Ma'am" she said Saluting

"At ease" I said causing her to relax

"Well it seems you are very eager to start working aren't you" I said picking up a clipboard and pen and handed it to her getting a look of confusion in return.

"Your first job is to go around the base and check our supply levels, mainly from the resource warehouse, the cafe, shop and the arsenal. If Akashi is not present she usually leaves a request list outside the main door you should find it easily, now once you have collected all of the requests please return here with the requisition forms after lunch, do I make myself clear" I said with a stern tone.

Izumi looked a bit confused by her first job, but she had to learn and this was an opportune time to do so, she then gained a look in her eyes that said she didn't want to upset me, she then looked ready and raring to get to work straight away.

"Yes, Ma'am" she said saluting before darting out of the room to start her work leaving me and Ryuujou giggling at her antics.

Time: 12:05

It took all the way up to lunchtime in order to gather up most of the requisition forms from around the base, but I took it all in my stride as I got to talk with more with some of the ship girls and get to know them better, I especially liked speaking to Mamiya-san as she also carried a motherly feeling to her as did Houshou-san, plus I also got to try some freshly baked cookies and almost melted from happiness.

The last place I had to visit before heading to lunch was Akashi's arsenal. But when I arrived there was no Requisition forms tacked onto the notice board so I had to go inside and get them directly.

When I approached the door I could hear the sounds of someone grinding and welding something, So I knocked on the door….

"Hello is there anyone there" I asked

"Who is it?" a voice replied

"It's Izumi, I'm here for the requisition forms" I replied

"Oh, right come on in"

So went in a did and I finally saw Akashi for the first time, that bright pink hair was amazing and her hazel eyes, I think, really gave a knowledgeable air to her.

' _So this is, the most powerful kanmusu on base now huh'_ I said to myself whilst giving the girl a once over.

"Ummm… Akashi-san the requisition forms…." she said snapping me out of my thoughts

"Ah sorry about that…. Here you go Izumi" I said rummaging around before pulling out a stack of papers and handing them to her

"Thank you, I also have a question"

"And what might that be" I asked

"Well what do you do here in the arsenal Akashi-san. Auntie told me to ask you when I got the chance to. As it's better to hear the explanation from the one who knows better than anyone else at least that's what Auntie said" Izumi told me

"And I will be happy to answer that question for you" I said getting a smile from her

"I will keep my explanation simple, basically I use improvement materials gathered from resource runs in combination with the resources we already have and use them to improve a ship girls weapons. Take this for example" I said holding up a piece of equipment that I was working on.

"This is a standard 12.7cm twin gun for destroyers, with all of the resources I had explained about earlier. I improve it so it then becomes a 12.7cm twin gun type-B kai 2. This means that it has mostly uprated firepower and anti air defense. So that is basically what I do here in the arsenal in a nutshell" I finished

"Wow, thanks for the information Akashi-san that really helps. But I now have to leave to go and get some lunch before turning in these forms to Auntie. So goodbye for now Akashi-san" Izumi said

"Okay then, see ya" I replied

But just as she left the room a bulb went off in my head as I realized something ' _Crap, I knew I forgot to do something. I forgot to ask Izumi for details on her equipment'_ I said to myself sighing. I then started to work again on the twin gun, but something out of the corner of my eye got my attention.

I got up and walked over to where to my surprise, there was a pen drive with a sticky note attached. I picked the two up and then proceeded to read the note, it said ' _Akashi-san here is the data for my equipment, Auntie told me you might need it for your work. I hope it helps. Izumi.'_ "You are one sneaky bugger Izumi, you know that" I said out loud.

I then loaded the information and my computer and whilst I was waiting for it to compile, I got back to finishing off what I was originally working on.

So now That I was finished at Akashi-san's arsenal, I could now go and give the forms to Auntie but first my tummy was growling and soon it was time to eat. I had decided to eat at the cafeteria and then head to Mamiya's for desert.

For today's lunch it was going tuna pasta salad with some orange juice and when I headed to Mamiya's for dessert I had a giant chocolate parfait which had filled my tummy to the breaking point.

After letting my tummy settle down I made sure that all the forms I had gathered were in order, for Ryuujou-san's sake, and the I proceeded to head back to Auntie's office, but just as I was about to knock I heard a large amount of voices coming from within talking about something I couldn't quite hear and they were loud too so I knocked once but couldn't hear anything in response so I went inside.

"Pardon the intrusion" I said heading into the room and what I saw could only be described at organised chaos, barring Auntie and Ryuujou there was at least 10 other people that were rapidly moving about the room going back and forth between the couches and the desks.

Auntie had noticed that I had come into the room and with a quick point of her finger towards Ryuujou, I understood what she had meant and started to head over to Ryuujou's desk.

"Here you go Ryuujou-san all requisition forms in order and on time" I said putting the files on the desk.

"Thank you for that Izumi-san, this will save me a lot of trouble especially with the current chaos that is going on right now" she replied sighing to which I could only nod in agreement as I looked around the room.

I had recognised every ship girl that was present in the room in an instant, Inazuma was with her sisters Akatsuki, Hibiki, Ikazuchi and their guardian Tenryuu. The next lot of ship girls consisted of the entire kongou class with Kongou herself and her sisters Hiei, Kirishima and lastly my favourite out of the bunch Haruna.

The last person was a bit of a surprise to me as it was my elder sister Shinano, I then remembered that Auntie had said that sis was a recent transfer so she probably hadn't had a chance to explore the city yet.

"I guess this is one of the shopping days for the girls right?" I asked

"Yeah, they're going to be leaving soon and then I can get some peace and quiet" Ryuujou at this point had her head on he desk. A light bulb then went off in my head as I slammed my fist on the table gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

"We have a big problem"

"And what problem is that?" Kirishima said adjusting her glasses

"We have no train driver, I don't think she's come back yet from her family emergency" I replied bluntly, shocking everyone and they all started to panic but Auntie managed to calm them down

"So what do we do then, the other DMU's we have are being maintained on the mainland, and the KiHa 25 we have no one has the training to run it safely" Tenryuu said causing everyone to realise that their shopping trip would be cancelled.

After hearing the bad news, pretty much everyone in the room was saddened at not being able to go shopping, but then I remembered something. ' _Of course, why didn't I think of this before'._

"What about Izumi-san, she can take us" I said causing everyone to perk up and look at her causing her to sweatdrop.

"Ummmmmm….. eto"

"Izumi-san learned how to drive the train in 20 minutes yesterday that's how we both got home after we had found out the driver had left the station" I continued to explain, this had raised the spirits of everyone considerably knowing that there was hope for their shopping trip after all.

With all of the girls staring at Izumi-san even more intensely than before, she was starting to feeling uncomfortable, making her to want to bolt from the room as quickly as she could, but what finally stopped her dead in her tracks was when she saw the biggest puppy dog eyes she had ever seen coming from me and as a result she sighed in defeat.

"Yare, yare….. alright I give up I'll take you to town just stop with the pleading faces damn it" she yelled in frustration causing everyone else to cheer in happiness and we then all left the room in order to go and get ready.

It had taken less than an hour for everyone to get ready and to gather up at the platform, with Izumi already to roll waiting for the girls to board.

"Stay safe everyone" Aria said as the girls boarded the train and took their seats

"We will" They all said in return and with a final blast of the horn the train left Sado Island and headed towards the mainland.

Once again Inazuma decided to sit in the cabin seat, which Izumi was grateful for as she had someone to talk to rather than being alone in the cab of the train. The journey went much smoother than yesterday's and pretty soon they were all once again pulling into Hakusan station.

Once they had arrived, Izumi locked down the train and gave the keys to the station master before meeting up with the rest. They had decided to split up into groups and do their own things, the kongou sisters were one Inazuma her sisters and Tenryuu were another and lastly Izumi decided to go around with her sister in order to get to know her better.

For a little while I followed Shinano wherever she wanted ago, I also had a chance to point out a few places of interest that I had found the previous day on my own tour of Niigata. But when we came upon a clothing store we both decided to get some clothes, a lot of clothes.

We came out bags in hand, mainly regular clothes but also a few special outfits, such as a Touhou Marisa cosplay for me and a Reimu outfit for Shinano, which had surprised me as I had learned something new about my sister. We both liked our new outfits so much that we headed back into the store and changed into them. We then decided to stay this way for the rest of the day.

During the trip we had crossed paths with the other groups multiple times around town and what was funny is that they didn't recognise the two of us which made us giggle at our friends confusion.

The next stop for us was a planned one. It was shopping center on the other side of town, the reason being is that Auntie had texted me and said that my new room was going to be ready by the end of the week, so I needed stuff to furnish my room with hence the trip to the shopping center.

"Sorry for dragging you here sis, you can go and look around whilst I finish up if you like" I said in an apologetic tone

"It's alright, you've been with me for most of the day helping me with my things, the least I can do is stay here until you're finished with your things too" She replied giving me a big hug

"Thanks sis, I really appreciate you sticking with me"

"That's what family is for" Shinano smiled.

With everything large being put on order for delivery and with the smaller items in hand, Izumi's tummy once again roared so that had signalled that it was time for dinner. Once we looked at a clock of course.

"I swear I have a timer in my tummy or something" she growled with me trying and failing not to laugh causing the former to sigh in annoyance.

The other groups had already decided where they were going for dinner by texting izumi. It seems the kongou sisters had gone to a british restaurant whilst Inazuma and her group had gone traditional. But I decided to surprise her once again by asking to go a fastfood restaurant stating that I had rarely ever been to one except on special occasions and since our sisterly bonding time was considered very special that's where I wanted to go, so Izumi happily obliged and we both went to eat at a nearby Mcdonalds.

It didn't take long for us to be served and seated, with Izumi stating that it was the fastest time she had ever been served in one of these places, causing me to wonder what fast food restaurants were like where she originally came from before she became a ship girl.

We then had finished eating by making some plans for the next time we came to town and then we left and with Izumi looking at her phone, she then said it was at last time to head home, but not before we decided to pull a little prank by the two of us. So we took a taxi back to the station to get ahead of the others. We had arrived a few minutes earlier than them, so let the games begin.

The other two groups had converged on the train station and had discussed what they had done today, Hibiki on the other hand was sharp and had pointed out to the group that the two cosplayers, which was me and Izumi, were resting on a bench nearby.

Which startled the two groups as neither had known that they had both bumped into the cosplayers during their trip, causing the two of us to once again giggle at their confusion. A good 15 minutes had passed since then and Kirishima was getting annoyed.

"Where the hell are they" she said tapping her foot impatiently

"I'll go ask the station master, if she's seen them" Inazuma said speeding off into the station, only to come back a few moments later.

"Well?"

"Hawawawa….. the station master had said they had already came by and picked up the key to the train and are waiting…. somewhere near by…." Inazuma said trailing off when she noticed fairies were floating around the two of us causing her to puff her cheeks in annoyance

"Izumi-san, Shinano-san how could you trick us"

"Took ya long enough da ze!" Izumi replied with a goofy grin on her face whilst I was trying to stifle a laugh

"Wait you two were the cosplayers we ran into today?" Tenryuu said in shock and realization

"Yep, it seems we share a common interest and that is cosplaying" I said fixing my bow whilst Izumi calmed Inazuma down with a new flavour of her favourite sweets.

"Okay, Okay now we've had our fun and games but we really need to start heading home before the Admiral gets worried" Haruna said fidgeting, to which everyone agreed and picked up their bags and headed into the train station.

We all then piled onto the train and then we proceeded to head back to the island, with Izumi stating that she to go to her aunt to hand the receipts in for the big buys of the day for Ryuujou to process and she asked me to come along to show off our outfits. Then after that the two of us would then show our elder sisters and see their reactions to end the day.

When we arrived on the island and everyone went their separate ways. Both me and Izumi did exactly what we said we were going to do, first we visited the Admiral and Ryuujou to drop of the receipts and we both got complimented from the two on how we looked. As for our sisters, when we found them, their reactions to what we were wearing were so good that Izumi took a picture on her phone, before running away from an upset Yamato. Eventually after tiring themselves out we all hit the baths seeing as we had all already eaten either in town on the trip or on the base.

I could only stare out from my window when I got back to my room, looking back on how I had connected more with Shinano and I had really hoped to do the same with Yamato and Musashi soon as well. With that thought in my mind, I drifted off into a peaceful sleep wondering what the future may bring for me and the inhabitants of the Sado Island naval base.


	6. Sortie

Time: 11:00

Date 24th August

Location: Battleship dorm

Man I never would have thought how good it would be to have an ice cold Ramune, courtesy of my sister, after a full morning full of hard work, you see I've moved into my new room from the temporary one in fleet HQ.

Don't get me wrong I like my new room but setting everything up the way I wanted it to be took me nearly 3 days worth of work due to the massive amount of pieces that had to be put together from the flatpack furniture I had ordered, I've had splinters before but not as bad as having to remove a few every couple of minutes. Once that was done I got my sisters to help me when they had the chance to for the aesthetic part of my room.

That was yesterday and now after a few hours of moving stuff between rooms I was finally done and decided to kick back for awhile before I headed off to lunch and when lunch finally came around I just wanted to stuff myself with the sweet stuff, so off to Mamiya's I went and pretty much stuffed my face without realising that I had set a record once again this time for the most amount of desert eating within a set time.

It wasn't long after that I finished my giant parfait that Ryuujou had come into the shop and walked over to me, which got me confused at what she wanted me for.

"Izumi-san, please report to the office immediately the Admiral wishes to speak to you on an important matter" She said in a serious tone

"Lead on then" I said getting up out of my seat, handing the bowl to Mamiya-san on the way out.

It didn't take long for the two of us to be present in the admiral's office with Ryuujou sitting at the desk and me standing in front of the admiral's desk.

"On time as always Izumi" I spoke

"I hate being late" she replied getting a giggle out of me

"Okay it's time to get down to business, do you know why I called you here?" I asked, she shook her head showing that she had no idea

"It has been nearly two weeks since you have arrived here at the base and it's about time that we send you out on your first sortie" I said causing her to squeal in excitement.

"Now, now don't think this will be all fun and games because it's not, you see my dear we have a tradition here on base for new ships and that is they must perform their first sortie all on their own" she gulped hearing this and had started to shake and sweat.

"Don't worry Izumi it's nothing too hard, just a lap around the Island making sure that you activate the checkpoints along the way and then you come back to base. It's basically a trial sortie so that we can gather data that will help us decide which sorties we can send you out on in the future" I finished saying causing her to sigh in relief and relax.

"Okay now that we have the specifics out of the way. Battleship Izumi you are too report to the launch ramp at 15:00, do not be late, do I make myself clear" I said

"Yes ma'am!" she saluted in response.

With the briefing now over I was given permission to leave and start preparations for the mission and that is exactly what I did. The first place that I went to was the library and from there I planned the most efficient route both ways around the island because I wasn't told which way I was going yet, also I plotted the areas of reconnaissance that I was going to perform since I had the planes to do so.

After I had jotted down the route the next place I went was the bathhouse and had a nice long relaxing bath before getting out and heading back to my room. Where my sisters were waiting to give me pointers to which I hugged them all in happiness thankful for their help. The time for the sortie was then upon me.

I went to the launch ramp, summoning my outfit and checked that everything was topped off one last time, where my Auntie, Ryuujou and my sisters were waiting.

"Okay this is your first sortie Izumi, be careful and stay safe" Auntie said as I positioned myself on the launcher

"I will, now it's time to go"

"Good luck!" everyone present said as I hit the water and sped off to start my route which was to be made in a clockwise direction.

"Well there she goes" Aria said

"Think she'll be okay?" Shinano asked

"We'll find out in a few hours" Auntie replied before turning around and walking away leaving the others at the dockside.

I had just started my journey and was on my way to the first recon point, in order to alleviate the eventual boredom that I would suffer I had brought along my ipod full of my favourite songs to help pass the time. Also I had brought some food along with me when I get to the halfway point of the journey.

As I had planned I reached the first recon point and launched the first plane, I had told each of the fairies that when they had launched individually, to go in an arc at the max of their operational range before returning. I had to wait roughly 30mins before the fairy returned and gave the all clear for this zone. I thanked her as I put the plane away and headed over to the checkpoint which was simply a button and a light on a stand. So I pressed it, waited for the light and then headed on my way.

The second zone was the exact same as the first, getting an all clear from the from the recon plane. So I went to and used the checkpoint and then headed on my way to the halfway point to take a break seeing as it had been two hours since I set sail and I badly needed to rest.

The rest area was nothing more than a table and chairs carved out of a giant boulder but I really didn't mind seeing as it was the simplicity of the place that I really liked. 15mins later I had finished my snack and made sure the place was clean before I set sail into the third zone.

This time however I didn't need to launch my plane due to the fact that the ungodly sounds that I could hear, gave me all the information and warnings that I needed to take heed of in order to know that the Abyssals were close.

" _How did they get this far?"_ I said to myself looking around trying to spot them and when they came into view I went wide-eyed in shock but I quickly got over it seeing as there was only 8 targets to take care of. The mini fleet consisted of two wo class, four ro class destroyers and lastly two he class light cruisers.

I got into a suitable firing position just as the fleet came into firing range and immediately the destroyers and light cruisers started firing, not really landing their shots near me, but they were not my immediate concern. I had to take out the wo's quickly so that I could minimize the damage from their planes and thankfully so far they had only launched a few each.

I took aim with all my barrels pointing directly at the wo's and as soon as the rounds were loaded I fired the shots heading straight to their targets causing a massive explosion far bigger than I thought and as the smoke dissipated I found out why.

Whilst taking out the wo's as I had initially planned it seems that one of the rounds went passed the wo on the right and hit one of the he class that was behind it.

I was surprised that I managed to take 3 ships out at once, I chalked it up to luck, but I was snapped back to reality as the planes had started to fire causing some of my clothes to get ripped and this pissed me off so I loaded type-3 rounds into the top right turret whilst the rest I aimed towards the remaining fleet.

I fired the remaining three turrets and managed to sink two ro class leaving three ships left, whilst the turrets reloaded my chance to take down the planes had came as they had grouped together and had started to head my way so I took the shot and took them all down luckily.

As that turret started to reload I looked towards the remaining ships and against what I had initially thought, instead of running away they had grouped together and started charging toward my position. I took aim and as soon as the last turret reloaded I fired staggering my shots and each of them hit their targets resulting in a massive fireball.

I checked my radar and sensed no more ships in the area so I breathed a sigh of relief and set off the third plane for recon to make doubly sure that there was no more ships in the area as I headed over to the checkpoint to activate it as well as to take a breather.

When the fairy returned I was glad there was an all clear signal, but the fairy surprised me by mentioning that where the mini fleet had been there were a couple of blue lights that had been spotted so I headed over there and to my surprise I had found 5 cores just floating there, I immediately picked them up and put them in my snack bag causing it to bulge slightly.

After that I headed over to the last zone and performed the same routine, getting the same results thankfully, before it was finally time to head home. Once the dock came into view I saw my sisters waiting for me and as soon as I went onto land and put away my outfit they saw the damage I had taken and immediately dragged me off to the docks in order to get repaired whilst Musashi headed over to Auntie to tell her what had happened.

Luckily due to the light damage I had taken I only needed to spend 20mins in the bath in order to get fully repaired. Let me tell you though being in that bath was the absolute definition of feeling bliss. After I got out and got changed into some fresh clothes I was then dragged off again to Auntie and was made to give a full recount of what had happened during the mission, my sisters had requested to stay and listen as well.

Once I had finished recounting everything that had happened I flopped onto the couch and sighed in relief that the talking was over.

"Damn, your very first sortie and you already have knocked up 8 kills" Auntie said

"I think this is the first time this had happened" Ryuujou then added

"All three of us are glad that you are okay" Yamato said as she handed me a Ramune, which reminded me to ask her how to make later on.

After I had taken a big swig of my drink, I caught sight of my bag and remembered that I had one other very important job. By this time however my sisters had to leave as they had to go on their group sorties soon, so I wished them luck as they did for me as the left the room.

"Auntie"

"What is my dear"

"Can you set up a video call with mom, I really want to tell her what happened today"

Seeing the look in my eyes Aria didn't take long to make a decision.

"Okay Ryuujou, set it up" she said

"Yes, ma'am" Ryuujou replied picking up a remote and turning on a big screen on the left wall showing the typical skype call screen, It didn't take long for the call to be picked up.

Today had been an eventful day for me, seeing that I had just finished off a massive pile of paperwork. I can really sympathize with any secretary ship that was to put up with this stuff on a daily basis.

Anyways as I was about to leave the office in order to fetch a drink for me and the admiral, a call screen popped up on my desktop. I looked over to the admiral and she nodded, so I answered the call.

"Hello, secretary Zuihou speaking"

"Hi Zuihou-san, it's been awhile" Izumi said waving into the camera

"Izumi-san, it's so good to see you again and yes it has been awhile. What can I do for you today?"

"Is my mom there? I want to tell her something"

"Yeah she's here" I replied as I added her into the video call

"Mom!" she yelled happily

"Calm down dear" so she did "Now, what did you want to tell me"

"She kicked abyssal ass today sis, racked up eight kills" Aria said causing the two of us to go wide-eyed in shock "Also she did it on her own, on her very first sortie" she added with a smirk,

It took me and Emika a little bit before we snapped back to reality

"Details now!" Emika roared and so a very abridged version of what had happened today was told to us both, thankfully taking less time than retelling the full version of the story.

"Well, I'm impressed" I said nodding

"You can say that again, I'm very proud of you my dear" Emika said to which she smiled brightly, it was then that Aria took over and spoke to us over various matters giving Izumi-san a much needed break from talking.

Just as the call was about to end, Izumi spoke up once more.

"Mom, before you leave there is one more thing I need to speak to you about"

"And what is that my dear" Emika replied as Izumi picked up her bag and took out a blue object shocking everyone in the room and in the call.

"What should I do with this" she said holding a core up to the camera

"You managed to get a core, why didn't you tell me!" Aria shouted at her

"I'm sorry Auntie but I thought it would be best if mom was present at the same time before I showed them to you"

"This is what the call was really about wasn't it" Aria sighed massaging her forehead

"Partially" she said back

"And you were right to contact me immediately" Emika spoke taking her cap off before continuing

"We need you Izumi to hang onto that core so that we can send someone to pick it up ASAP"

"So you want me to hang on to all five cores for now then?" she asked this caused the room to go silent again before…..

" **FIVE!"** everyone yelled

"Yeah, five" she said pulling the remaining four cores out of her bag and showing them to the us.

"Two from the wo's, two from the he's and lastly one from one of the ro's" she continued to say pointing out the groups of cores

"Fucking hell, I think Yukikaze just lost her title as the freaking lucky ship!" Ryuujou yelled before slouching in her chair with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Now you really do have to make sure those cores are kept safe, my dear" Emika said

"I know, I think I'll ask Akashi to build me a floor safe and lock them away for the time being until the person comes to collect them" she replied

"Good idea, speak to her in a little bit then" Aria spoke

"Will do" she replied

After that the call had finally wound down and after everyone had said goodbyes, with me asking mom to pass on a message to sis. I was then allowed to take the rest of the day off and so I left the building and immediately headed over to the Arsenal asking Akashi for the safe, to which she had a spare one on hand that I could take. So I used a mini pneumatic forklift to move the safe to my room immediately locking the cores away before returning the forklift to Akashi.

Seeing how exhausted I was by this point I decided to skip dinner and just have some light snacks in the comfort of my room. it didn't take long before night fell and so I got changed and as soon as I hit the pillow I was out like a light. I had pleasant dreams that night and I smiled knowing that today had been a very good day.


	7. Train Training

I decided to do something a bit different for this chapter and that is I decided to put the main focus on the railyard. Seeing as without it the girls wouldn't get their supplies, they wouldn't be able to sortie and they would be stuck on their own on the island.

A few things to note, is that the ranking system for the locomotive's is completely made up. The DMU's that are mentioned exist in real life however Nihonmatsu railyard does not, I pretty much chose a place that was close to Niigata and also that was almost midway between the west and east coast of Japan and went from there.

With that out of that way, enjoy the story everyone.

* * *

Time: 16:00

Date: 7th september

Location: Train yard

Ever since my first sortie 2 weeks ago things have been pretty hectic, what with running around as my workload had been increased, the amount of individual and group sorties I had been sent on, as result of this I had started to become like Sendai as a result coming from the amount of work I had to do.

As for the cores that I had found on my sortie, Mom did exactly what she said she was going to do and sent someone over to pick them up. It was a really nice surprise to see Max was the one picking the cores up, as it gave me and auntie a chance to catch up with her. But she couldn't stay long and pretty soon she was back on her way to the mainland.

Luckily for me the past couple of days the amount of work that I had to do has lessened somewhat but I still was running around like a headless chicken. Another thing that had come about to to my work was that my stress levels had skyrocketed making me extremely cranky. So I decided to distance myself from the rest and find something that could hopefully alleviate my stress.

Oh boy did I find it, in an unlikely place I might add, and that place was at the train yard. The place was empty, barring the KiHa 25, due to the the rest of them being maintained on the mainland, at least if I remembered correctly.

Luckily I had found documentation that described what rolling stock what he had currently at the base and I was surprised at what we had stationed here. There was 1 ET122 DMU, 2 KiHa 75 DMU's, 1 KiHa 201 DMU, 1 KiHa E130 DMU and lastly, as I walked around and found the longest lane, a 6 car KiHa 283 DMU for which I assumed was used for when the base went on holiday as the base needed maintenance.

But I did take notice of the overhead lines running down the length of the lane and this got me curious and so I looked outside of the shed and saw that the line was indeed electrified to which I assumed all the way to the mainland. Thankfully the line was switched off when I went and checked the circuit breaker. I then went back and dived into the paperwork.

After reading the information my inner train nut went absolutely ballistic with excitement, so I immediately grabbed my laptop and found all of the manuals that I needed especially in order to learn how to drive and maintain the trains again, since the previous driver had unfortunately quit her job in order to look after her family. So Auntie was currently looking for another driver to hire but had no luck at the moment.

A few hours later and my research was finished with a mass of paper notes detailing everything that I relearned about the DMU's. Luckily through my research times had changed as I had found out that all of the trains used the same shibata style connector so they could connect to each other if needed.

Seeing as it was getting late and it was almost time for dinner I put everything away in an open draw and decided that tomorrow I would make this place, my relaxation zone.

After a quick bath in order to get rid of the grease and oil that had somehow gotten on me, I went to dinner and chatted with Inazuma and her sisters before heading to bed to sleep.

The next day

Time: 07:00

Today was going to be a good day for me seeing as it was my scheduled day off and I knew exactly how to spend it and so off to the rail yard I went and set to work on cleaning the place up a bit seeing how bad of a state it was in.

That really didn't concern me though as getting this place up and running was really important, the parts warehouse was a nightmare to fix and it took me the better part of four hours in order to categorize everything for the different trains. Seeing as it was now lunch time I took a break and got some food out of a mini fridge that I had found and stocked the previous day.

Once I had finished eating I decided to perform some maintenance on the KiHa 25 that was still sitting outside since the shopping trip 2 weeks ago, so I opened the shutter door and drove the train into its specific maintenance lane and powered it down. It was then that the checks began, It took a few hours full of changing parts and swearing as I hit myself with a hammer multiple times before I finished.

The training that I had previously undertaken had really paid off and I was eternally grateful to my uncle for teaching me the tools of the trade with regards to train maintenance at his rail yard on the opposite coast. Luckily the KiHa 25 was one of the ones that I had learned to maintain, in fact now that I think about it every train here, barring the 283, I have worked on and knew the full workings of them both inside and out.

It was then as I was taking a break from filling out a maintenance report when a knocking sound could be heard as a voice spoke up.

"Anyone in here?" the voice yelled

"In here Tenryuu" I yelled back getting up off my seat heading over to where she was to find out what she wanted. when I got over to her I was surprised at the large group that was there.

"Auntie, Ryuujou, Inazuma-san what are you all doing here?" I asked puzzled

"Izumi, what are you doing here and why are you dressed like that?" Aria replied to my question with a question

"The train yard is the place I've been going to relieve myself of stress" Auntie looked down as I said that "Don't worry auntie I'm okay, anyways to answer your second question as to why I look the way I do right now is due to the fact that I had just finished giving the KiHa here a once over and changing out some parts, basically I was performing maintenance"

Silence then descended in the room as the group took in the information before auntie spoke up.

"You can perform train maintenance!?" she yelled in surprise

"Ara, ara did Kaa-san not tell you auntie" I replied

"Tell me what?"

"That I'm an official and fully licensed class 4 maintenance engineer as well as a class 2 Train driver, even though I'm a Kanmusu now" I said grinning, this pretty much caused Ryuujou and Auntie to go wide-eyed in shock as their jaws hit the floor whilst the others had no idea what I was on about.

I managed to pull out a couple of seats at this point as I saw that the rest of Inazuma's sisters had come in wondering where she had gone. I then got everyone seated whilst I asked Tenryuu to help put my Auntie and Ryuujou on the chairs. It was then that the two of them snapped back to reality.

"Explain yourself Izumi, Now!" Auntie said in a serious tone

"Very well, back before I became a Kanmusu from the age of 11 to 17 both me and sis were living with uncle Yoshi due to mother having to stay at her then current base at all times during that period. So whilst sis did the normal things a girl her age would do, such as going out with friends. I became enthralled in the world of trains which gained the interest of uncle and as a result I was put to work learning all the tricks of the trade both from the maintenance side and driving side of things" I took a swig of my drink at this point due to my mouth being dry.

"It didn't take me long to get the hang of things and by the end of that year I had already performed and completed my first overhaul of a single car emu, which greatly impressed uncle so he encouraged me to take the class 1 engineers exam after christmas, which I passed with flying colours. Over the years after that I passed the class 2,3 and 4 engineer's exams as well as 5,4,3 and 2 Driver's exams which took place on the testing tracks outside the maintenance lanes." I once again then took a swig of my drink.

"Sadly those fun times came to end, as both me and sis had to move back nearby the main HQ with Kaa-san due to the fact that the Kanmusu program had started. So moved back we did and here I am a few months later as a kanmusu speaking to you wonderful ladies, Now is there any questions?" I said being finally able to take a break from speaking.

Once again silence had taken hold as everyone else present soaked up all of the information that I had told them. It was then that Tenryuu then decided to speak up

"What does the ranking system mean, I don't quite understand it"

"Good question, the ranking system determines what a person is allowed to work/drive with, why maintenance is in descending and driving is in ascending order I have no idea but here is what each rank entails, 1:5 is for Electric Multiple units, 2:4 is for Diesel Multiple units, 3:3 is for Hybrid units, think of a hybrid car on the rails, and lastly 4:2 is for locomotives designed for freight use and that is the level I'm currently on at the moment"

"Well what about the 5:1 rank then, what does that entail?" Ryuujou asked

"Ah, that is the highest rank on both sides and is designated for High speed trains, or HST's for short, like the 283 that is stationed here. Sadly however I can't go near it."

"And why is that" Ikazuchi asked

"I'm not qualified to work or drive an HST, so I would have to take the corresponding training and exams and if and when I pass then I will be able to work with the 283 properly and safely, does that satisfy your question Ikazuchi?" I replied getting a nod of understanding

"How long would it take you to become qualified?" Tenryuu asked once more

"Thanks to uncle I can take an express week long test, most of it for the maintenance part and 2 days of driver training due to my extensive background in the area" I replied

"So once that test is passed, you will be able to maintain and drive any train here on the base?"she asked once more

"Pretty much, yeah" I replied

"So that time you looked up the manual for the 25…" Inazuma said

"I was brushing up on my knowledge" I replied getting a smile from her in return.

Wow, I mean just wow. What Izumi had just told all of us, showed me just how much that I didn't know about my niece. But I was thankful that she did, as it came to me that Izumi was the answer to a major headache I was having.

It was then that I got up off my seat, walked over to Izumi and held her hands.

"You, Izumi are the answer to all our problems" I said starry eyed

"Uhhh…. auntie you're freaking me out"

"She's right, Izumi-san with your qualifications we can call off the search and basically give you the position" Ryuujou said

"EHHHHHH!" she yelled in surprise

"Please, Izumi I've been racking my brains out with Ryuujou to find a suitable driver and maintainer but found no one that can fill the position. But now you have told us about your background in the area you pretty much have both positions filled, so please my dear save us from this nightmare hunt"

After seeing my Auntie in this state only once before this and even Ryuujou had a pleading face, it didn't take me long to make a decision.

"Alright, alright I'll do it" I said with the two of them cheering "But on one condition"

"And what is that"

"Please stop with the cheering, my ears are starting to hurt" They immediately calmed down.

"Okay, now that we have you on board Izumi we'll go over the paperwork tomorrow but we have a very important job that is coming up soon that we need you to take care of" Auntie said

"And what is that"

"We need to you to go to Nihonmatsu railyard and pick up our DMU's that are stationed there, they have been fully maintained and looked after. It should take you roughly a week to bring them all home. You will have to make your own way to Nihonmatsu unfortunately, although accommodations have been acquired for you during your stay up there, Do I make myself clear" she finished saying

"Yes Ma'am" I replied saluting.

At this point I was salivating at the prospect of going to Nihonmatsu railyard, it was pretty much a train junkie's wet dream and I get to go there on official business, man I couldn't wait.

It was then, thanks to my roaring tummy, that it was noted that dinner time was approaching quite quickly so everyone decided to disperse and I immediately headed to the bathhouse to get clean again.

It was then off to the mess hall and I was feeling so good that I challenged Akagi to an eating contest and much to everyone's shock I utterly destroyed her by consuming 12 kg of food beating my previous record that I had set at main HQ.

Akagi was a bit upset about losing but I assured her that I wouldn't try it again it was just that I was in a really good mood at the time and that's why I did it. She understood and hugged me which felt really nice, her hugs really reminded me of Yoko and how much I missed her. After that it was time for bed.

The next day

Today was literally full of paperwork, man I hate paperwork, consisting of everything and anything that was related to both of the jobs as well as registering my qualifications to signify that I could work freely on the base. The whole thing took all day, so lunch was skipped and when we finally finished we had skipped dinner too. At this point we were starving and didn't feel like cooking so the three of us headed into town went all out at a really nice traditional sushi bar.

After we got back Ryuujou asked to stay in my room seeing as the Battleship dorm was closer than the Aircraft carrier dorm to the train station. I was happy to let her since I had a big bed and so the both us got changed, she had to borrow a pair of PJ's, and as soon as we hit the pillows we were out like a light.

4 days later: 13th September

Time: 07:00

Time was slow for the next couple of days and it was killing me, but thankfully the day I was to go to Nihonmatsu railyard had come. I decided to wear some normal clothes that I wasn't afraid to get dirty, there was no way in hell I was going in my proper outfit. I also made doubly sure one last time that I had everything packed properly as well as all of the appropriate paperwork and my ID in order to present to the main desk at the railyard.

I left Sado Island, at 09:00, via a track car that had come to pick me up taking me again to Hakusan station. Saying goodbye to the driver I headed inside, and since Kanmusu are exempt from paying fairs, I hopped on a train for a short journey to Niigata main station.

Once I arrived at Niigata I went over to platform 4 where I would start my journey to Nihonmatsu. 4Hrs 40mins and 3 trains later I arrived at Nihonmatsu station and the first thing I did was text my Auntie to let her know I had arrived safely. Seeing as I wasn't going to the railyard until tomorrow I decided to get a bite to eat and go check into the hotel that I was to stay at during my time here. The rest of the day was spent by me checking over everything once more before I hopped in the bath, ate some dinner and then went to bed.

Next day

I woke up bright and early and I hopped in the shower, I then had a nice filling breakfast before getting dressed and leaving the hotel. I called for a taxi and went over to the main entrance to the railyard.

As I entered I went wide eyed in shock, there were model trains everywhere, a functional scale model of the railyard to the right side of the lobby with a gift shop to the left. After I snapped out of it I went further into the building and found the main reception.

After introducing myself and stating my business to the lady sat at the desk, she went and contacted the various people, whilst this was happening I looked and and I saw something that made my jaw drop in shock. On the TV was a presentation on what was available on site and low and behold there was the 283 under the training section. This made me get really excited but I had to calm myself down as the lady, who was named Miya, had come back.

She had some bad news and that was that I couldn't see the manager of the place due to some emergency problem that had cropped up and it would take a few hours before I could see her. I was a bit upset at hearing this but Miya offered to show me a waiting room where I could relax for a bit. Looking away for a moment something caught my eye, there was a bunch of people congregating in the lobby and I realised a tour was about to start, I was not going to pass this chance up.

So I told Miya I was going on the tour, to which she gave me a complimentary ticket as a way of saying sorry for the delay, before coming back and heading into the waiting room later on.

The tour was amazing, getting to see everything this place had to offer luckily I had brought my camera as I wanted to go sightseeing during my time here in Nihonmatsu. I did get to see the simulator room, which once again got my excitement to spike. Once the tour had finished of course. I had to then buy some lunch at the cafeteria that was on site, before hitting the gift shop and buying a few things with my own personal funds. After everyone else had left I went back to Miya and she showed me the way to the waiting room were I decided to take a quick power nap.

Okay now that Miss Izumi was situated in the waiting room, I now had to go off and see if Chian had dealt with her problem yet. Luckily I knew exactly where to find her, so of I went to the maintenance sheds and lo and behold there she was barking order whilst waving a giant wrench around.

"Finished with your problem Chian?" I asked walking up to her

"Yeah, thankfully" she replied

"Well, if that's the case Miss Izumi is waiting for you in the waiting room"

"That's the one from Sado Island isn't it" she asked

"Yes"

"Well, shit. Today can't get any worse now can it" Chian said banging the wrench off a spare piece of rail

"Just tell her the truth and don't beat around the bush" I said trying to placate her

"Yeah you're right. Let's go then" Chian said putting the wrench back in it's place before leaving the area with me close behind.

A knock on the door awoke me from my slumber and immediately got me alert.

"Sorry for the wait Miss Izumi" Miya said

"It's alright" I said, Miya then opened the door and entered the room with a ponytail wearing bluenette wearing overalls following closely behind. The two then sat themselves down.

"Miss Izumi, this is our site manager/owner Chian Yamakawa" Miya pointed out

"Nice to meet ya kid" Chian said in an upbeat tone whilst extending her hand to which I readily accepted.

"Now let's get down to business, I'm sorry to say that there is a serious problem" Miya said causing me to become very worried

"Sorry to say this kid but you ain't taking your trains home anytime soon" Chian spoke

"And why is that" I nervously asked, Chian sighed before replying

"We had a powercut a few days ago and the emergency diesel generators kicked in, however the idiot in charge of them forgot to turn them off after the power came back on, leaving us with a very little amount of fuel left and our next fuel supply drop isn't until the middle of next week, on top of that the 283's engines completely packed up rending the train inoperable and not mainline worthy. Thankfully we found another train, a 285 emu, but that needs maintenance too "

Hearing this news shocked me silent, without the fuel it put a major spanner in the works for getting the trains home safely and on time and I hated to be late. Even more worrying was that a train couldn't be used anymore. I was grateful to Chian for finding another set that we can use plus I remembered that the electrics were already installed back at the base.

Whilst I was pondering on what to do Chian stepped out for a few minutes to take a call and get us some drinks. She came back in soon after it was then after racking my brains for a few minutes that an idea popped into my head.

"THAT'S IT!" I yelled startling the other two.

"What's it?" Chian asked

"I have an idea on how to make this work"

"And what would that idea be?" Miya asked

"Before I lay out my idea, can I ask you for a favour?"

"Speak" Chian said curious as to what I was proposing

Seeing this as a chance to train for the 285 instead of the 238, seeing as I needed it. I pulled out some documentation and my ID and handed it to Chian before I asked…

"If I pull this off, I would like to undergo training to advance my rank to 5:1 so that I could then be able to work and drive on the 285 that will now be used on the base"

Both Miya and Chian then left the room to discuss what I had asked of them and 30mins later they came back.

"So" I asked

"Is it true you were trained under instructor Bolter" Chian asked

"Yes, he was my uncle and I had trained for 6 years under him" I replied

"YOUR UNCLE!" they both yelled as I nodded in response

"Wow, I mean just wow, well this recommendation letter definitely came from him, seeing how hard I had to work get mine and how rarely he gave them out, I can only see that you are telling the absolute truth" Chian said

"T-thank you" I replied blushing.

"Now, if you really can pull this off I will gladly train you, but I will not go easy on you just because you are instructor bolter's niece"

"I expected no less" I replied shaking her hand

"Well let's hear it then"

"Okay, during the tour earlier we passed the entrance to the maintenance sheds I noticed a small battery shunter in its charging station and two DE10-3000 series locomotives sitting in one of the sidings and as we passed I could smell fresh fuel coming from the diesels, so I assumed that they had been recently refueled am I correct in saying that" I asked

Miya then picked up a tablet and then checked something before speaking….

"You're right they were refueled just before the power cut and have been awaiting use"

"Good, and I know from the research I did back at the base all of the DMU's and the DE10's here share a common trait and that is they all use the shibata connector is that correct?"

"Yeah you're right, even the 285 uses it" Chian spoke this time

"Well then here is what we do, we use the Battery shunter to move all of the DMU's onto a separate track and hook them all up together, whilst I prep the DE10's and once that's done I'll hook up to the front and then take the whole lot back to base, refuel the diesels and then come back and that is my plan" I said quickly taking a swig of my drink. It didn't take long for the two of them to burst into laughter.

"That Izumi, is the most fucking awesome idea that I've heard in a long time" Chain said wiping away a tear

"I agree, why didn't we think of this ourselves" Miya said calming down

"Well, let's get started then but seeing as it's starting to get late we'll line up all of the DMU's today and then you'll hook up the DE10's and take the whole lot home tomorrow, is that okay with you Izumi?" Chian asked

"Perfectly fine with me" I replied

"Good, let's get to it then"

We all then left the room and headed towards the maintenance sheds, where I got a surprise coming in the form of Miya getting changed and getting down and dirty herself.

Luckily there were two Battery shunters and between me and Chian doing the shunting and Miya taking care of the track switching, we finished the job in two hours just as the sun had set beyond the horizon.

After putting everything back where it belonged and the sheds being securely locked up before the night crews came a little later on. Chian invited me out for dinner along with Miya, to which I went back to the hotel, had a quick shower and got changed.

I then locked up before heading to a nearby restaurant to meet with them and had a really nice meal. We split up after that and I immediately headed to bed excited for what was to come the following day.

Next day

I awoke very early to a call from Chian, as I had given her my number last night, and quickly made my way over to the railyard and set to work on cold starting the DE10's whilst Chian and Miya gave the coupling on the DMU's a once over. I had gotten the two diesels started up quite quickly and moved them to the front of the the train coupling them up and making sure the connection was good.

An hour later Miya came over and gave me the all clear to use the mainline and so soon after I departed. Seeing as this was new experience for me I took it nice and slow at first before raising the speed. Because it was very early in the morning the line was relatively clear, of course I had to stop a few times to let the Shinkansen past and seeing that blue blur blazing past my window was an amazing experience.

As my journey continued I watched as the countryside pass me by and to be honest with you I would gladly drive trains any day of the week if I wasn't a kanmusu at the time. A little while later my journey came to a halt as I had to wait just outside of Echigo-Oshima station for a broken down train to be moved, it didn't take long before I was on the move again.

About 30mins later I reached Hakusan station, luckily Chian had phoned ahead and managed to get the station master to give me the use of the centre line in order to switch the DE10's from the front to the back but I had a time limit of 15 mins to do so and I cleared that easily heading off once more to Sado Island.

I texted ahead to ask Auntie and Ryuujou to meet me at the station and when I arrived they were shocked at what they had saw and the fact that it had been two days since I left. They immediately demanded an explanation, so whilst each DMU was being refueled and put away in the sheds, I explained over lunch what had happened as well as handing over the paperwork for Ryuujou to sort out.

I then refueled the DE10's and got ready to set off again, but not before Mamiya-san came over and gave me a large bag of sweets for me to share with Chian and the other as a thank you for their hard work.

"Okay Auntie, Ryuujou, Mamiya-san I'll see you all in a week and a half" I said waving out of the window

"See you soon Izumi" They all said waving back as I left the station once more.

The journey back was a bit different seeing as I had to take the longer route due to how busy the other line was becoming but I didn't really care and took the more scenic route taking pictures on my phone along the way. When I did finally made it back and put the diesels in their proper sidings a grinning Chian was waiting for me and she immediately dragged me off and started my training as she promised to do.

As she was dragging me I passed the massive bag of sweets to a giggling Miya and told her what to do with them and she nodded still trying not to laugh at my predicament.

Week and a half later: 25th september

Man I never would have guessed that Chian could be such as slave driver, you see my training was ramped up from the get go starting with my brain being stuffed with every bit of information of every nook and cranny that comprised the 285, boy did that make my head spin. This part took a three days and once the written portion of the exam had been completed I was dragged off this time by Miya and the physical portion of the exam began.

I had to perform the 285's maintenance by myself, bloody hell that was a nightmare to accomplish as the 1st day comprised of finding all of the problems, 2nd day was fixing the problems and on the third day was making sure that everything was working properly. After that I was sent out of the shed leaving Chian and the adjudicators to go over my work with a fine tooth comb.

Whilst I was doing the maintenance I surprised at the interior of the train, I mean anyone would if they had been on a train for the first time. The interior was really well laid out and quite well presented.

Anyway the next day was luckily for me a day of rest and relaxation, which I pretty much used up by staying in my hotel room lying down on my bed trying to alleviate all of the joint pains and muscle aches that I had accumulated.

Once I went in the day after it was straight back into the fire, as I was thrust into the training simulator and I was put through anything and everything they could throw at me in the simulation preparing me for real world conditions. The next day ended up pretty much the same way but at least there was some good news the fuel tankers had arrived early and the railyard now had a full supply of fuel again. However as a result Miya had come up with a devious idea for the final test the next day.

And oh boy I was surprised what that final test was going to be, you see there was a tour already starting when I arrived next day and as a special event for the day, there was going to be a few go arounds of the testing track in the recently maintained 285 they had on site. As they headed off to start the tour Miya smirked at me as she passed by with Chian laughing uncontrollably at my misfortune to which I grabbed a piece of bauxite from my bag and started nibbling on it.

I then went and got properly dressed before heading out to the sheds and starting the 285 up before driving it up to the testing track platform where Miya and guests were waiting for their ride. To say I was nervous was an understatement I mean this was this was my first time driving a HST and on top of that I had passengers on board.

Thankfully though as I started getting into the trip my nerves calmed down and I pretty much drove the 285 as I did in the simulator without any incidents occurring. I then dropped the passengers off then headed back to the sheds. Chian then came up to me and congratulated me on a job well done, she told me to go and get some dinner and come to her office afterwards.

And this is where I am right now sitting in the cafeteria eating some food, before long I had finished and had made my way towards Chian's office. Once I reached it I knocked on the door.

"Come in" I say and so she did

"Ah Izumi right on time, please take a seat" so she did and by the looks of it the couch was comfy to her

"Do you know why you are here?" I asked, she shook her head in response

"Well do you want to tell her Miya"

"Very well, Izumi due to your outstanding performance throughout all of your tests over the past week and a half, coupled with the great reviews from the passengers earlier today. Over careful consideration between me, Chian and the various adjudicators who presided over your exams." she started to get nervous

"We have decided to grant you a promotion to the final rank of 5:1, congratulations Izumi" At this she burst into to tears of happiness that she had finally done it, Izumi had gotten full qualifications for both maintenance and driving.

"Wipe those tears away Izumi, not many people have achieved what you have done today be proud of yourself kid" I said handing her some paper towel

"There much better, now come on we have a party to get to" I said dragging her off once again.

That night at the party, was a night to remember filled with lots of yummy food, great music and a lot of fun party games. It went long into the night and at about 1am she decided headed back to her hotel where I presumed she passed out on the bed, due to how tired she looked.

Next day

I woke up pretty late in the day at around 1pm as I really needed the rest. Seeing as this was the last day of me being here in Nihonmatsu I decided to do one last round of sightseeing and buying some souvenirs, before heading back and packing up making sure I had everything before leaving the hotel.

I arrived an hour later at the railyard and saw a spectacular sight all of the locomotives at the yard had been lined up in rows with 285 in the centre maintenance bay all ready to go. I walked up to Chian and Miya on the platform.

"Well this is it Izumi, it's time for you to go" Chian said giving me a hug

"Yeah it's a shame I have to go, but we will keep in touch with each other right"

"We sure will" Miya said giving me a hug.

After one last group picture I boarded the 285 and headed to the cockpit, setting up my camera as I wanted to record this moment. I then started to move out of the sheds.

"Everyone salute" Chian roared with a procession of an innumerable amount of horns and whistles going off at once, hearing this made me burst out crying as I let off a whistle blast of my own as I picked up speed and headed out of the railyard and onto the mainline.

"Fair winds and following seas Izumi" Miya said as I went out of sight.

I had finally stopped crying and started to focus on the main task at hand which was to get back home, the longer way mind you. So I decided to text my auntie ahead of time saying I was on the way back.

Meanwhile at sado island train station

It had been a few hours since I had received the text from Izumi and both me and Ryuujou were waiting at the station for her to come into view.

"Where is she" Aria said worriedly

"Calm down she'll be here…. wait a minute do you hear that" Ryuujou said as her ears picked up something

"Hear what?" It was then a High pitched whistle could be heard in the distance

"That doesn't sound like a DE10, nor the 238" We then got our answer as the train rounded the corner and to our surprise it was a brand new locomotive with Izumi at the helm.

She pulled into the station, powered down the train and jumped out and yelled

"Surprise!" but all she was met with was silence before I ran up and bear hugged her.

"Congratulations Izumi"

"Yeah congratulations" Ryuujou said hugging me from behind

"By the way Izumi where's the 238 and why is this loco here" I asked

"I will tell you in a bit" she replied smiling

After the hugging had finished, she took her stuff out of the train and put it away in in the sheds. Izumi then went and put her stuff in her room before meeting us in my office where she went on to explain everything that had happened during the remainder of her time at the railyard.

Once I finished explaining, Auntie decided to throw a huge party to celebrate my promotion. But the party didn't last as long as the one yesterday thankfully and pretty soon I was sleepy as all hell.

So after I said goodnight to everyone I went straight to my room and drifted off into a peaceful sleep, grateful that things would go back to normal but nothing would ever make me forget the fun times I had at Nihonmatsu railyard.


	8. Interlude 1 Big news

Time: 12:30

Date: 28th September

Location: Steamers Pub

I currently was sitting in a british pub, on my day off, enjoying a nice lunch. The reason why I'm here is that before I left the base I had asked around for a nice place to go for lunch and that's when Kongō made her suggestion of the pub she always visited.

Seeing as it was always good to try something new, I took her suggestion and looked up the location as I was heading to the mainland, it didn't take me long to find the pub.

I was watching a live action drama on the TV they had hooked up and had just finished my meal when….

"We interrupt this program to bring you some breaking news" A voice said whilst the breaking news logo displayed before switching to the newsroom with a female presenter.

"Breaking news, A major development has recently been announced for the Kanmusu program" This immediately got my attention so I got out my phone and started to record.

"Due to the talks that have been going on the past few months, the leaders of the various Kanmusu programs around the world have finally come to an important decision"

' _What could it be, hurry up news lady, spit it out'_ I said to myself starting to get edgy.

"A new program has been announced given the moniker of the exchange program. From what we can gather from the information, each Kanmusu fleet with approval from their program heads can now receive Kanmusu from different nations and work with them."

' _This could be bad, especially if there are american Kanmusu involved'_ I said to myself worriedly

"It is unknown at this point how long the exchange period we last, it seems more information is going to be released at a later date" the newscaster finished saying before the screen faded back to the breaking news logo.

"We now return to regular scheduled programming" the voice said once before the live action drama started playing again. I immediately got off my seat, payed what I owed and ran out of the pub. Rapidly pressing buttons I called my Auntie….

"Auntie did you see the news!" I yelled

"Yes I did, alright Sayuri get back her quickly we need to discuss this with everyone"

"Yes, ma'am!" I said hanging up and running to the train station.

That night the base was ablaze with fierce discussions concerning the matter of the newly announced exchange program. Some were for it some were against it, eventually the arguing got so bad that I found a space and fired off a full salvo which settled everyone down immediately before auntie took the reins and calmed down everyone further, stating that this base may or maybe not chosen for the exchange program.

This got people happy but still unhappy at the same time, but they all decided that when the time comes and if foreign kanmusu show up they decided to all get along and not cause and problems. After the discussion was finished everyone dispersed and I went to my room to take some headache medicine before hopping into bed.

As I started to fall asleep I personally wondered what I would be like to meet the ship that I went toe-to-toe with and came out of the battle relatively unscathed, and have a drink with her. At this thought a smile crept across my face as the realm of sleep finally took hold.


	9. Fireworks Festival

Short chapter is short, the reason behind this is that I was running on fumes when I was writing this chapter. Thankfully I wanted the the chapter to be short anyway.

On to the story

* * *

Time: 07:00

Date: 5th November

Location: Finishing Patrol route

Roughly just over a month has passed since the big reveal of the exchange program and so far there has been no further news on it since. I think my mom knows something but she isn't letting on. Anyways the hype died down pretty quickly after that and then everyone pretty much settled back into their own routines.

For me however I was hospitalised for a good week after I went on a night patrol mission with Sendai and got thoroughly soaked whilst fighting off some Abyssal patrols. It seems that even Kanmusu can get sick because when I woke up the next morning and did my run, I passed out right in front of Houshou-san as I was talking to her.

I was taken immediately to the infirmary where it was found that I had a really high fever as well as a nasty cold. When mom heard about this she wanted to bust out of her office and come down to see me but luckily Auntie, Yoko-nee, who was visiting mom at the time, and Zuihou-san managed to talk her out of it.

As for my sister ships they were all fraught with worry over my condition and they visited as often as they could but Auntie had to stop them after a while for fear that they could become sick also, I agreed wholeheartedly with Auntie's decision and so I was allowed to recover in peace.

After the week had passed I was back into action, but Auntie had other ideas and put me to work as Ryuujou-san's aide, the reason behind this was so that a relapse wouldn't occur and I wouldn't become sick again. Whilst I was thankful for my Auntie to allow me to work in the office again but man did I hate the freaking paperwork.

For the next two weeks after I recovered I spent most of my time on sorties, trying to catch up on the missed experience. I mostly did resource runs though seeing as I never did them before but I still sunk quite a few abyssals in the process upping my kill count so it was a win-win situation for me.

And now here we are with me coming back from my latest run full of goodies to put in the resource warehouse. I even surprised myself at how many resources I had gathered during the mission, I did however had to take some fuel on the return journey seeing as I was running low. Auntie had expected this and said that it was normal for Kanmusu to take fuel on during the trip so I wasn't in any trouble for doing so.

As I made my way on to dry land I could see that the entire base was in a frenzy with ship girls running around the place carrying wood and other materials. You see today we were going to have a fireworks festival. Auntie had decided to do this in order to let the ship girls have a break and reward them for all of the hard work they had put in over the past couple of months.

Now I loved fireworks festivals as I kid and I still do, so as soon as I put the resources away, reported to auntie and got changed into some clothes that I really didn't care about. I immediately jumped in to help but after lunch had come and gone I was dragged off by Naka as the both of us had a surprise waiting for when the festivities started. What I didn't know however would be that a surprise was waiting for the two of us as well.

It had been a couple of hours of practice for me and Naka and boy were we tired, so before we decided to go join in the fun at the festival that was going to start soon the both of us went to the bathhouse and had a nice long soak. I had to shake Naka awake as she had fallen asleep and was floating around the bath and then we both left to go to our rooms and get changed into our Yukatas.

Time: 20:00

It was now the time for the festival to get into full swing and I was fully rested and set to enjoy it before the main event later on in the night. As I started to walk around I had noticed that there was various cameras dotted about the place, but from the conversation I had earlier in the day when I reported to auntie after my sortie, she had stated that the camera's were for the memories so that we could look back on this time in the future.

I started to have my suspicions but auntie was adamant on her answer, so I had to believe her and so I just ignored the cameras and just went on to to perform my task for the day. You see I had made fried noodles last week and everyone loved them so I was tasked with manning my own booth and make them for everyone, to which I was only happy to oblige.

It had been a hard two hours full of frying, flipping and serving but finally I had run out of ingredients so I could close up and walk around some more.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was starting to get close to performance time, so I said goodbye to my sisters and went on the lookout for Izumi. Luckily I managed to catch her just as she was leaving her booth.

"Izumi-tan" I said getting her attention

"Yeah, what is it Naka"

"Come on we need to get going it's almost time" I said pointing to the clock on the HQ building and it showed that it was really close to showtime

"Right, let's go" she said pulling me along to the back stage.

When we got backstage we started to change into different miko outfits and as we were getting ready the nerves had started to take hold and I was starting to shake. Naka had noticed this and had come over to reassure me that everything would be okay, this really helped me calm down,

Meanwhile outside Akashi had been given the role of announcer and had just sent off the previous group's performance and now she had to introduce the two of us, because our performance was the last one of the night before the fireworks were set off.

"Okay, everyone it's time for the last performance of the night and boy you are all in for a treat let's all welcome Naka and Izumi to the stage!" she said before walking off leaving the stage to the two of us.

We walked on stage and took our positions before naka started to speak….

"Hi, everyone thank you for having us"

"We hope you enjoy our song"

"So here we go, Happy Natsu Matsuri!" we said both together

 _The midsummer sky deepens in color, the festival's beginning_

 _I put off my homework until later - duh, of course I did_

 _Is that the goldfish-scooping booths calling to us in our_ _yukatas?_

 _Let's start running on the count of three once we cross the bridge_

 _I can hear the sound of_ _taiko drums somewhere_

 _The string of paper lanterns lures us in_

 _Happi happy* summer festival_

 _Happi happy, fireworks go boom (boom!)_

 _Red, blue, yellow, green, vivid and brilliant_

 _Glittering smiles on our faces_

 _Lucky lucky, a shooting star!_

 _Lucky lucky, a wish!_

 _Frozen solid shaved ice (crunch)_

 _A happy happy day that's about to melt away_

 _A happy day_

 _An apple hard candy for cotton candy, let's drink some soda too?_

 _Putting off the shrine visit until later - that would be outrageous!_

 _Are you going to get an_ _omikuji? My fortune says I'll have great luck!_

 _I wonder if I'll be able to see that person who's been on my mind today?_

 _Off in the distance, fireworks explode up in the air_

 _I'm wishing for a miracle on the sparkling, starry sky_

 _Happi happy summer festival_

 _Happi happy, a premonition of love? (Premonition!)_

 _These feelings that make my heart start pounding_

 _Scenery I feel like I've seen in a dream_

 _Lucky lucky, could it be?_

 _Lucky lucky, is it just the two of us!?_

 _Heart pounding, chest tight, I feel so uneasy (so tight)_

 _Something's about to happen on this happy happy day_

 _A happy day_

 _Catchy catchy, this moment_

 _Don't disappear all at once_

 _A summer break that keeps giving me butterflies_

 _Popping, crackling sparklers_

 _Happi happy, let's make_

 _Happi happy, lots of memories_

 _That we'll never ever forget!_

 _Let's break our curfews just for today!?_

 _Happi happy* summer festival_

 _Happi happy, fireworks go boom (boom!)_

 _Red, blue, yellow, green, vivid and brilliant_

 _Glittering smiles on our faces_

 _Catchy catchy, I won't forget_

 _Catchy catchy, this moment_

 _Heart pounding, chest tight, I feel so uneasy (so tight)_

 _Something's about to happen on this happy happy day_

 _A happy day_

We finished our song and cheers erupted from the crowd as we waved to them, sis was near the stage and passed us two ice cold Ramune to which we chugged down seeing as the two of us were panting like crazy.

"Good work you two, excellent performance" we turned our head to the right to see someone walking on to the stage

"Auntie/Admiral!" we said together

"Now they have shown us their surprise, how about we show them ours everyone" auntie said getting a roar from the crowd.

It was then that a giant screen flipped upright and then the whirr of a machine could be heard as a picture was starting to be displayed on the screen and when it came fully into view my jaw hit the floor.

"Kaa-san, Nee-chan, Zuihou-san!" I yelled, the video feed then split and I saw multiple feeds from the many Kamusu fleets dotted around the country.

"Thank you for the performance!" everyone on the screen said as I looked shock, awe and confusion at Auntie.

"I guess an explanation is in order huh, well you see what I said about the camera's to you Izumi earlier today was only half the truth. Naka had let slip about the performance a couple of days ago and since every fleet was celebrating I decided to stream all of the performances that happened tonight live to the various fleets" she said

"I would have never expected that my dear Izumi could sing so well" mom said

"Kaa-san!" I yelled in embarrassment getting a giggle from the three of them.

"Now, now it's time for the main event, everyone to the slipway" Auntie said as the video link ended and the screen was taken down.

Everyone then headed to the slipway and when we were all in position auntie handed me a button and gave me the 'when you're ready' gesture. So with great anticipation a pushed it and soon the sky was filled with pretty much all the colours of the rainbow, just like the song we had sung earlier, and my god it was an awesome sight to behold. Naka had grabbed my hand and gave me a big smile as the two of us watched on as the sky was filled with colour.

After the fireworks had died down everyone split off and went around the festival grounds one last time, as for me I decided to go the bathhouse to have a nice long soak and as I looked out of the open air bath at the starry night sky, I made a promise to myself that through anything that the future throws at me, I would never forget the best fireworks festival that I had ever been too.


	10. New Surprises and allies

Well time for more trains again. The main reason behind this is that I had an actual dream that described pretty much what I decided to write in this chapter. So I went with it.

I'd like to remind everyone once again Nihonmatsu railyard does not exist, whereas Tokyo freight terminal does. Also there will be a lot of surprises in this chapter hence the title.

Anyways onto the story, enjoy everyone.

* * *

Time: 09:00

Date: 20th November

Location: Railyard maintenance shed

"Okay, everything is in place for the new Loco's" I said dusting myself off

"I'm glad that's over"

"I'm sorry Inazuma-san for this"

"It's okay, but now I want to go and get a bath" she replied

"I second that" I said heading out of the building with Inazuma following behind.

It has been a busy 15 days since the fireworks festival and the main reason is that the day after the festival Kaa-san had a video conference with all of the Kanmusu bases and had stated that the exchange program had finally entered its first stage. This caused everyone to become rowdy but were quickly silenced by Auntie before mother continued to speak.

Out of the multiple bases that comprised of Japan's Kanmusu program only three had been chosen to be part of the exchange program. Our base was one of them and as soon as the video conference had ended the group went into a huge uproar so yet again I found a clear space and fired my cannons and silence fell in the room.

Auntie then reiterated what she said before when the program was first announced and everyone once again firmly decided that whoever came they would all try to get along with them, hell most of them were wanting to meet the foreign ship girls.

Everyone split up after that and when off to do their own thing, my sisters had sorties to go on with some of the others and I saw them off. But just as I was about to head to lunch I was dragged by Auntie into her office where the head officer from the JMSDF's rail division was waiting via a video call.

The information that was gathered from that call was this, due to the shortage of staff dedicated to freight delivery to all of the bases. All bases as of now had to pick up their own supplies from the various freight terminals dotted around the country, in addition to that the bases had to provide their own electric freight locomotives due there being a shortage of diesel freight locomotives.

This meant that the line from Hakusan station to the railyard, including some of the shed, had to be extended and electrified due to the fact that we already had an EMU on the base. Luckily the person had stated that a professional crew would get the job done as quickly as they could. Then the call had ended and auntie gave me permission to have the rest of the day off in order to process the information that was given.

But I still went on my scheduled sortie because it would help me mull things over in peace on the oceans. Of course my kill count was upped when some Abyssals disturbed my silence and pissed me off there was however a very weird looking abyssal that gained my attention.

It had the body of a wo class but instead of a hat it had a flight deck on its right arm but no bow was seen and the planes were launching themselves, but what really confused me was the presence of torpedo launchers on its legs, 4 torpedos in each launcher.

I didn't know what to think of this thing, but it needed to be put down. Thankfully I had gotten quite few shots from my planes as well as video footage on my phone. I then blew the beast to bits, it did put quite a fight though before going down. I then noticed it left not one but two cores behind…. MIND BLOWN!... They did differ from each other though I knew that much.

I then immediately picked up the pace and headed back to base, where I ran and barged into Aunties office whilst she was in a call with Kaa-san and doctor Mizu. I caught my breath before reporting my findings which left all three of them in shock and I was asked to leave and whilst they went over what I had told them.

For the next week after that incident the wiring crew came and went in a massive blur, it was amazing to watch how fast they put up all of the necessary wiring in a precise manner, plus they had to revamp the existing line in to keep up to modern standards.

I also had to get in on it due to the fact that I needed proper training in order to service and maintain the wires and other components that comprised the electrical circuit and as a result I now knew the in's and out's of the entire system.

On the 13th auntie called into the office once more, but due to the fact that I just came back from another sortie I was extremely tired and hungry so she decided to keep the talk brief. Auntie boiled it down to that she had gotten a hold of an electric freight locomotive, she wouldn't tell me what it was under the guise of a surprise, and I had to go and pick it up from my favourite place and that was Nihonmatsu railyard.

Now this got me excited because I got to see Chian and Miya again. Auntie then snapped me out of it and then told me that after I picked up the loco, I was scheduled to pick up a rake of supplies from Tokyo freight terminal. Where whilst the train was being made up I was allowed a few days of exploring and having fun before heading back to base.

The main reason why I was given some time to myself is because of how many Kanmusu bases were heading to the railyard at the same time and since my train was last on the list to be put together, which irritated Auntie to no end, it was going to take the longest hence the couple days of relaxation that I was given.

My excitement had spiked even higher at this and seeing as I had a lot of personal funds that I had put away due to the pay I got from both my job in the railyard and the fact that Kanmusu get higher than average pay, I had hard cash to blow but I wasn't going to be stupid with it.

After the talk was finished I went to prepare for the trip and seeing as I was going to the 'holy land' I waited until dinner to take down requests from everyone on the base and it seemed that they all wanted something.

As a result the next day I went to the Niigata bank and made an account that was going to be a shared account for all of the Kanmusu on the base, I then deposited all of the money I had gathered from the girls and a few hours later the account was fully activated and was ready for use.

This leads us to the present day, after the bath I split up with Inazuma in order to get ready and make sure everything was packed. I then headed over to the station where Akashi was waiting in the ET122 to take a bunch of the girls on their shopping day. It didn't take long for everyone to show up and soon after we were onboard and then we left for the mainland.

As auntie had turned round to head back to her office she stopped in realization of something "Crap, I forgot to tell her about those two. Ah well it will be another nice surprise for her" she said shrugging as she continued to walk.

Time: 11:00

We arrived at Hakusan station once more and I said bye to the girls before heading off to once again take the 3 train journey all the way to Nihonmatsu.

On the second part of the journey I managed to buy some Lunch on the train and whilst I was eating I updated my blog which I had started very recently. Blogging had become quite a big hit with the ship girls and pretty much everyone had one, Zuihou-san's was a good read especially when she caught my mom doing some funny things.

Anyways at around half 3 in the afternoon I arrived in Nihonmatsu and immediately called a taxi and headed over to the railyard. When I arrived Miya wasn't at her desk but I could hear shouting coming from the shed so I went there and smiled as I saw both Chian and Miya barking orders at the rest of the workers. What caught my eye though is that the two of them had large suitcases nearby and I wondered what they were for but I shook my head and walked over to them.

"Hey Chian, Miya" I yelled walking over to them

"Hey kid" "Hello Izumi-san, its been a while" the two of them said as they turned around to face me

"Yeah it has" I said hugging them both before letting go

"Busy day huh"

"Yep, so kid ready to see your new loco?" Chian asked

"Hell yeah!"

"Well let's go then" she said with the two of them grabbing their suitcases which spiked my curiosity even higher.

We walked over to the sidings and when my eyes locked on to the locomotive my jaw hit the floor and I immediately ran over to check it out.

"No freaking way, this is an EH800 series these are freaking amazing. I-I can't believe I get to use this puppy" I said getting a little giddy

"Well believe it kid this bad boy is all yours to play with" Chian said whilst a giggling Miya was behind her.

It took me a little while for me to calm down and when I did I gave the loco a once over both inside and out, I then looked out of the No.1 end cab and once again my eyes caught sight of their suitcases and my curiosity finally got the better of me and so I hopped down out of the cab and went over to them.

"Like it?" Chian asked

"Yep, by the way you two how come you have such large suitcases?" I asked in return, the two of them looked at each other before facing me

"Ara, Izumi-san did your admiral not tell you" Miya said

"Nope" I replied shaking my head

"Well as of today the two of us are assigned to the Sado Island base as engineers and drivers, my sister will be taking over the railyard in my stead" Chain said smirking

"That's wonderful!" I said bear hugging the two of them

"Well, I'm glad you two are packed, you're going to need a few days worth of clothes where we're going" I said letting them go

"What do you mean Izumi-san?" Miya asked

"Well, Miya it boils down to this, after we leave here we are to head to Tokyo freight terminal and whilst we wait for a train of supplies to be made up. We have a few days to relax in Tokyo to do whatever we want before we head back to Sado Island" I replied

"Sweet sounds like a plan…. Ah excuse me" she said before walking away to answer her phone

"What are you going to do in Tokyo Miya?" I asked

"Don't know yet, we'll see when we get there" she replied and it was at this point that Chian returned and she did not look happy

"What's wrong Chian" I asked

"I'm gonna keep this short Okay, basically we had another loco ready for pickup but the Admiral that the loco was for just called and cancelled the pickup saying that she had found another loco closer to her base. But since the loco has already been paid for, she said we could keep the money and do whatever we want with the loco." she stopped to take a swig of her drink before continuing

"So now we have a free Loco and nothing to do with it and this is now a problem that I really didn't want to dump on my sister on her first day " she finished saying whilst scratching her head in frustration

"May I see the Loco" I asked

"Huh, sure Miya go and show her I need some time alone to think" Chian said walking off

"Sure, this way Izumi-san" Miya said taking the lead.

The two of us then crossed the tracks to the other side of the yard and headed into another set of sidings.

"This is the Loco in question Izumi-san" Miya said pointing to another red locomotive and once again my jaw dropped and my eyes went wide in shock

"She turned this down!" I exclaimed

"This is a very rare loco only four of these were built, I can't believe she turned down owning a Toei class E5000 set" I was salivating at this seeing rare beast just sitting there in front of me, I then made a decision.

"Well her loss is my gain, I'll take it"

"Huh?" Miya said

"I said I'll take it besides as Chian said she didn't want to dump this on her sister and we could always use another freight loco at the base because if the EH800 breaks down and there's a supply run to be made well we're screwed. So I'll say it again I'll take the E5000 for the base"

Miya then went silent as she pondered what to do. It took her about 3 minutes before she spoke again

"Okay that is acceptable Izumi-san, why don't you head back over to Chian and explain what is happening whilst I head to the office to make the arrangements for the transfer"

"Will do, also before you go is there a freight car I can take I have a lot of things to buy for the girls back at base and I doubt the railyard will have any spare"

"We do have one, we'll pick it up when we leave" Miya replied before heading on her way.

Once the two of them had walked away, I punched a post in frustration. This is something that I really didn't want to happen, especially now that my sister is in charge and it's her first day to boot.

I walked constantly back and forth just trying to figure out what the bloody hell I should do. It was then that Izumi came back to me and explained that she would be taking the E5000 to which I gave her a big hug and thanked her for saving both me and my sister from a major headache.

Then Miya came back with a tablet and asked Izumi to sign the transfer forms that would signify the ownership of the E5000 to her and with that done we all started to prepare to leave.

Chian then went off and got the E5000 and freight car before hooking them both, with the freight car in the middle, up to the rear of the EH800 and then she joined us in the front cab. We were then sent off by Chian's sister who was another bluenette named lilly and I just had to glomp her as she was too freaking adorable.

Anyway, after taking a photo together, the three of us then left Nihonmatsu railyard for probably the last time for a good long while. We then made the 21/2 hour journey to Tokyo railyard where we were instructed to go and park up in the holding sidings.

After that we then locked down the trains before handing the keys to the yard manager and left the yard before then hopping on to a bus which led us to the hotel that I had managed to book on the way down.

As I fell asleep I couldn't wait for the next couple of days of exploring Tokyo seeing as I had never been before. Look out Tokyo here I come.

Time: 09:00

Date: 26th November

Location: Tokyo Freight terminal main building

The last few days for the three of us was simply put amazing, even though the first day was filled with me going around from place to place and securing what everyone back at base had wanted. The next few days after that I had to myself to do what I pleased, on the other hand Chian and Miya decided to go off and do their own thing which I had no problem with.

During my time alone I hit a lot of stores, mainly electronic ones. The reason is that I wanted a PC for my room, because even though we have some in a community area it would be nice to have one of my own to use. I also picked up a new camera, as well as a new phone.

The former because I had to send it back to Yoko-nee seeing as it was hers and the latter because my phone battery caused the circuit breaker to trip in the dorms when I tried to charge it.

Of course I just had to head into a gothic lolita store and pick up some more kimono dresses in various colours and styles. They had really grown on me lately and seeing as I only had one for my uniform I decided to get some more while I had the chance too. *sighs* I blame Yoko for this.

One of the last places I had visited was an anime store, I didn't plan on it but when I saw all of the touhou stuff I went nuts so I bought 2 of everything. Especially the giant Marisa and Reimu heads.

After that was the actual planned last place to visit and that was Super Potato, a retro video game store. Man the nostalgia was real. I remember playing them thanks to my dad and how he had kept them from his childhood, but thanks to a house fire we lost them all. I bought a few systems and games to play with everyone back at base before leaving.

Anyways the fun times had to come to an end and now here I was waiting in the main building of the freight terminal waiting for the go ahead to hook up to the rake of cars so I could then head home.

Chian and Miya had some last minute shopping they wanted to do so they would arrive a bit later on. Now seeing as I had nothing to do I decided to take a quick power nap and quickly dozed off.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" I asked

"This is where the instructions told us to head" a brown haired ponytail girl spoke

"Are you really sure, coz all I see is a room full of chairs and a single person taking a mid-morning nap" I replied

"This could be bad" a long black haired girl said as she started to panic

"Calm down E we'll get to the bottom of this, me, Hornet, vulcan and Miss Langley are all here so don't worry okay" I said hugging the former

"Thank you sis Thank you" Enterprise said hugging back.

After that our group had calmed her down, we sat ourselves down whilst vulcan, a small red headed girl, went off to the nearby vending machines to get everyone drinks.

I bet you are wondering why we are here, well I'll tell you. The five of us, me, Enterprise, Hornet, Vulcan and Miss langley were here from america as part of the ship girl exchange program. As for why we are meeting the Head admiral here at a freight yard I had no godly idea.

As we all enjoyed the drinks and having a nice chat it was then that a voice spoke to us…..

"Good, everyone arrived safely" we looked to see where the voice had come from, when we locked on to the person. We saw her in full naval attire and behind her was who we assumed was a Japanese ship girl from what we sensed anyway. We then noticed the woman's stars on her shoulders and immediately they all snapped to attention.

"At ease" the woman said to which we all complied

"My name is Rear-admiral Emika Yamaguchi, head of the japanese ship girl program and this is my secretary ship Zuihou. I welcome the five of you who came here, now before we begin I will perform rollcall is that alright?" Emika asked getting nods all around

"Okay then, first up USS Langley CV-1""Ma'am" a black haired older girl replied

"Next, USS Yorktown CV-5""Ma'am"

"USS Enterprise CV-6""Ma'am"

"USS Hornet CV-7""Ma'am" a bob-cut brown haired girl replied

"Lastly USS Vulcan AR-5""Ma'am"

"Good everyone is present and accounted for now let's get…."

"Kaa-san?" A voice said from behind the group

I started to stir from my slumber as I could hear voices and when I opened my eyes and peered out from under my cap I saw two people I recognise

"Kaa-san?" I said, then the group turned around and my mood immediately brightened

"Kaa-san it is you!" I exclaimed jumping out of my seat and running over bear hugging her

"And Zuihou-san too, it's been so long" I said pulling her into the hug, a cough could then be heard garnering our attention which made me break the hug and I went red faced in embarrassment.

"Rear-Admiral, who is this person?" the older girl of the group asked, she gave off the same feeling as Houshou-san

"Permit me to do the honours Rear-admiral" To which I got a nod in response

"Let me formally introduce myself, I am the fourth ship of the Yamato class and the first ship of the Super-Yamato class, Battleship Izumi at your service, It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Also I'm Rear-admiral Yamaguchi's daughter in case you were wondering" I said

The Quintet of girls then went wide eyed in shock at what they had just learned. It took them a little while to regain their composure and they asked questions about what I had said and all they got was confirmation from my mom which is all they needed to accept. They all then introduced themselves to me.

"So, Langley-san, Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet and Vulcan. cool I'll remember those names for whenever we meet again in the future" I said

"By the way my dear, what exactly are you doing here?" my mom asked

"Freight supply run, I'm waiting to get the go ahead before I head back to base with my co-workers" I replied

"Really now, how long have you been here" mom asked

"About two hours or so" I replied

"Yo, long-haul hour and half also wagon 1 full load" A voice yelled

"Got it" I replied

"Well now I know how long I have before I leave" I said texting auntie to let her know what's going on

"what's wagon 1 and long-haul?" Vulcan asked

"Oh wagon 1 is a Railcar full of various stuff for the girls back at base, as for long-haul it's a nickname that was given to me by the yard master seeing as I have to take the longest train to take back to base. That reminds me, Kaa-san I own my own electric locomotive now" I said beaming before explaining to them how I came to acquire the locomotive.

"Well good for you my dear, anyways it's good that you are here Izumi. Do you think you can take some extra cargo back to your base?" Kaa-san asked

"And what cargo would that be mom?" I asked back

"Why that would be these five wonderful ladies, since they will be stationed at Sado Island from now on until the end of the exchange program" mom replied to which I went wide-eyed in shock

"EHHHHHH!, this isn't good"

"Why is that?" Langley asked

"My stupid auntie" I said

"Now, now my dear why is your Admiral stupid" mom asked a little bit annoyed

"She mentioned that there would be foreign ship girls arriving on base soon, but she never mentioned who. So I'm afraid that shit could hit the fan once the girls sight you when you arrive on base" I said

This caused the girls to panic a little bit before mom calmed them down and explained that there were rules in place to prevent incidents from occurring. This really helped in settling everyone's nerves.

It was then time for lunch at least according to mine and Enterprise's rumbling tummies, so we set off for the onsite cafe where Chian and Miya met us and introduced themselves to the others. As we were stuffing ourselves an important question popped into my head and so I asked….

"Kaa-san, how are we going to get the girls back to base I mean we can't put them in a freight car where they'll be thrown around like ragdolls"

"Don't worry my dear we have a 8600 series EMU waiting in the yard which will replace the broken E130 that your auntie reported last week. The girls will board that and you take them home" she replied

"Well if that's the case, Chian can you and Miya take the E5000 and take care of the girls whilst I'll deal with the freight" I asked

"Sure Kid, we'll head out ahead of you" she replied

"Got it"

We then continued to talk to each other mainly exchanging stories about our various sorties against the Abyssals. They were truly shocked when i told them about my very first sortie. When we finished Chian and Miya took the girls to the 8600 and then hooked up the E5000 and took off, whilst I said goodbye to mom and Zuihou before heading to the cab of the EH800 and due to some screw up *grumbles* I had to wait an hour before being allowed to leave and thus began my long journey home.

The journey home was a boring one the only thing that kept me sane was the communication between me and Chian's train and by the time they arrived at the base I was two hours behind due to track issues. I finally reached Hakusan station central line for the turnaround at 8pm and by this time it was dark, this would be my first night time run, partially anyway. Now I knew what Sendai has to put up with every night, even though I experienced it myself.

Once I made the switch I headed straight to the Island and luckily there was no more delays. Once I arrived I decided to sort the train out tomorrow seeing as how tired I was, but before I could head to bed I reported to Auntie and she told me that despite how bad I thought it would get when old enemies meet, everyone on our side surprisingly welcomed them with open arms and treated them fairly. There was a bit of resistance but that was to be expected as grudges don't really go away that easily.

I then left auntie's office and then when to check on the girls and made sure they were comfortable in their temporary rooms, Chian and Miya had claimed rooms in the railyard saying that is was the easiest place to stay.

Once the check was over I immediately headed to bed as all of the concentrating I had to do today really tired me out.

As I was trying to fall asleep my thoughts were filled with worry but also excitement as I wondered what the future would bring for the foreign ship girls and how they would fit in with the rest of the fleet. Once I sorted my thoughts out I finally managed to drift off into a wonderful sleep.

But then I was awoken by some shuffling in my bed, which kinda creeped me out a bit. I moved my hand around to try and figure what or who was in my bed when suddenly I felt something Pudgy. A voice then spoke….

"Stop it that tickles" A voice said

"S-stop.." another said

I then ripped off the duvet and my eyes went wide eyed in shock as I saw two people staring at me.

"It's been a while sis/cousin" they both said together

"Nee-chan, Itoko!" I said squealing in glee as I dog-piled the two of them

"Woah, easy there sis calm down" she said getting me into a headlock and giving me a noogie.

Meet my cousin Tomoko Miyanaga, that's right she aunty's daughter. If I were to describe her looks I would basically say that she is an average height, long brown haired and hazel eyed fun loving girl. I really do think of her as a younger sister due to how close we were as kids. Also she's 15 years old

It took me about 5 minutes to become free of her grip and by this time my hair had become seriously disheveled, so I got out of bed and turned on the light before heading over to the table and I then started to fix my hair.

"What are you doing here sis, I thought you were with mom? And Tomo-chi what about you" I asked

"I was okay with being with mom's fleet, but I was starting to miss you. So when I had the chance I asked mom and auntie and set it up so that I could stay here for a while" she replied

"Well this is the starts of my week long vacation from school, so I decided to stay here with Aunty rather than back at the house" she replied to which I went and hugged from behind

"It was a really nice surprise to see you both, also sis, did you know Akagi gives similar hugs to you?" I said getting back up and heading over to my dresser

"Really now, I guess I need to speak with Akagi then…. Hey what's that"

"What's what sis…. wait don't touch that!" I screamed as I turned around and saw that to my horror the safe that contained the two odd cores I got the other day, was somehow open and the core was on the ground.

But it was too late to stop the two of them and they both touched the cores and screamed as they were both bathed in a bright white light, I at this point had to shield my eyes from the light. The light then faded and to my shock I saw the both of them now had odd looking outfits that looked really familiar.

It was then the two of us could then hear the roar of footsteps and soon my door was shot open as I saw auntie, Ryuujou and my sister ships standing there.

"Izumi, Yoko, Tomoko what's…. wrong" she started to say but then she saw Yoko-nee and Tomoko in their new forms

"Shit, well Auntie, we have some new ship girls on base" I said as I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly whilst the two of them just stood there in awe and confusion as to what the hell just happened. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a long day.


	11. Amagi & Tosa

Time: 07:00

Date: 27th November

Location: Admiral's office

To say last night was awkward was a freaking understatement. After auntie barged into my room to see what was going on , she immediately clocked on to Yoko's and Tomoko's new forms to which she immediately demanded an explanation as to what the hell had happened.

So I went on and explained about the incident with the two cores with the two in question chiming in as and when they needed to. Aunty was clearly upset and angry at what happened but that was mainly due to her worry for yoko's and tomoko's welfare seeing as their equipment was eerily similar to that odd looking abyssal that I had filmed a while ago.

Once Tomoko had managed to calm her mom down, she and Yoko assured her that they were both feeling absolutely fine and nothing was wrong. Aunty then decided to continue the discussion in the morning seeing as it was getting pretty close to midnight and so after a quick instruction on how to bring out and out away their outfits. The three of us climbed into bed and fell into a peaceful sleep.

Fast forward to this morning and the three of us were sitting comfortably in aunty's office and were drinking some ramune, I had a go at making some under the instruction of my sister, whilst Aunty got in contact with doctor Mizu in Yokosuka in order to set up an appointment for Yoko and Tomoko in order to find out which ships they had become.

Sadly mom couldn't be contacted as she was currently at the other end of the country doing base inspections. This made Yoko-nee a bit upset but I managed to cheer her up just like she had done for me all those months ago, it was this least I could do for her.

"Okay thanks mizu speak to you soon" Aunty said as she put down the phone before turning to us

"Okay you three, Mizu is available this afternoon for the exam but you will have to stay overnight in order to wait for the result in the morning. I will find you some accommodations in a little while, is this okay with everyone"

We nodded in response but then an Idea popped into my head concerning where we were going to stay for the night.

"Aunty"

"Hmmm…"

"Would it be okay if we took the 285 and stay in that, seeing as it's built for sleeping on. Plus it needs a shake down run anyway"

"Well I don't see any problem with that, I'll still need to talk with Yokosuka station in order to get permission for you to use the sidings overnight. So why don't you three go have some lunch and pack some clothes for an overnight stay… Tomoko are you okay" I look over and see Tomoko shivering a little bit I look over at Yoko and she gives me a nod before we both grab her in a hug.

"Don't worry Tomoko me and yoko and your mum are here for you. So calm down okay" I said to her and after a little while she calmed down.

Both me and Yoko decided to leave the two of them alone for awhile and so we left the room to go and pack before we headed to mamiya's for something sweet to eat. Yoko decided to tell me her worries about everything about becoming a ship girl herself.

So I did what she did for me and that was to stay by her side and help her through this, the dam burst and she started crying for a good couple of minutes before calming down and heading to the bathroom. It was at this point that Tomoko came into the shop looking a whole lot better than she did earlier and pretty soon Yoko rejoined us and we all settled down and shared a giant parfait.

The time to leave was soon upon us and whilst the two of them headed to the platform whilst I got the train prepared and pretty soon the three of us plus Chian, seeing as Aunty's worries wouldn't go away, were on our way to Yokosuka.

Just over 4hrs later we had arrived safely in the sidings at Yokosuka station, after doing the standard procedure for locking up the train until we got back. We were just about to head out of the train station when my phone rang and so I answered and my ears were filled with nothing but bad news.

I went on to tell everyone what I had just been told and it pretty much boiled down to the fact that there was some equipment that had malfunctioned and needed to be replaced thankfully they had spares and everything would be back up and running in the morning.

Everyone was glad that nothing bad had occurred but now the lot of us had no idea what to do next because we pretty much had the whole afternoon to ourselves and after a whole lot a thinking we just decided to go and see what Yokosuka had to offer.

We headed back to the train as it was starting to get dark with our arms loaded down with bags full of food and so once we were back on the train, I locked it up and then we all proceeded to eat. It was pretty funny to see the reaction on Chian's face when she saw just how much a shipgirl can eat.

Once our bellies were full and we had our baths we all settled down in the sleeper cab for awhile whilst watching some TV and pretty soon all of us slowly started to drift off into slumber.

The group awoke early the next morning and started getting ready as quickly as they could because of the test being in the morning instead of the afternoon. They then made their way to the hospital and had a small breakfast in the canteen, where Izumi noticed she had been knocked off her top spot in the speed eating contest and she was fuming but for the sake of the others she decided to take care of it later in the day.

Doctor Mizu then came to meet them in the waiting area and took Yoko and Tomoko away in order to perform the tests leaving Izumi and Chian alone to do as they pleased and so Izumi decided to take Chian to her favourite place to relax and that was the lily flower beds in the courtyard.

It was a beautiful day out and Chian could only agree that this was a nice relaxing place to be, even though she was reading a book and Izumi was napping under a tree. The hours had slowly passed by and with a rumbling tummy the duo set off to the canteen where Izumi 'calmly' beat and reclaimed her top spot riling up the staff of the hospital once again in the process.

It was then that the two of them were called to the Kanmusu wing by doctor Mizu over the tannoy system and so they headed over. When they entered they were welcomed by a red faced duo and a smiling Mizu which confused the two of them. That then took a seat before Mizu started to explain to them….. And let's just say their jaws wouldn't leave the floor.

"So let me get this straight Mizu-sensei. You're telling me that Yoko and Tomoko who are now Amagi and Tosa respectively. Have the ability to change their outfits at will." I asked

"Quite right Izumi, girls can you show them please" She asked and so they did and we once more went into shock. One moment that had a full armament of guns around their waists, in Tosa's case she held one in her right hand. The next they had a set of flight decks, carriers of arrows and a bow a piece, the curious thing was that Amgi was a righty and Tosa was a lefty with their bows.

"Wha… how" I managed to stutter out

"We don't know sis and don't worry we were shocked at first but we got used it" Amagi said whilst rubbing my shoulder to calm me down

"Yeah don't worry cousin and to be honest i'm okay with it" Tosa added on

A few minutes later and a bit of freshening up I came back into the room and saw that everyone was happily chatting amongst themselves and so I retook my seat next to sis before speaking once more….

"Tosa have you told your mom yet?"

"No I can't get a hold of her, Ryuujou said that she would be in an all day meeting with Aunty due to a base inspection" she replied

"Well I guess we can tell mom at the same time then huh"

"Yeah it kills two birds with one stone sis" Amagi said

"I am worried about meeting our sisters though" Tosa said

"I agree"

"Don't worry you two, I was nervous as all hell when I met my sister ships for the first time and I thought At first I thought they would leave me and I got scared. But in the end they welcomed me warmly and I felt really good reuniting with my sisters again." I said leaving them to mull it over for a little bit before sis replied…

"I guess all we can do it wait and see" to which I nodded before giving the two of them a hug.

It was then that their stomachs brewed up a storm signalling that they were starving which cause to me burst out in laughter before I left the room and went to get them something to eat. I then came back and let them eat their spoils. It was then that something popped into my head and so I decided to act on it.

"Mizu-sensei"

"Hmmm.." she said taking a sip of her drink

"Do you have a portable testing/monitoring kit?"

"I should.. Why do you ask"

"Well to be blunt, what happened to sis and Tosa could happen the Akagi and Kaga when they come into contact with each other" me saying this had gathered everyone's attention in the room

"You really think so sis?"

"There is only one way to find out" I replied

After that Mizu left the room and took some time to think to herself before she came back into the room with said kit in her hands sending a clear message that she was ready to go. After she clocked out from the hospital the group hopped into a minibus and made their way back to the train station before they loaded up and with a quick blast of the horn, Izumi left Yokosuka behind behind making her way back to base.

4Hrs later they arrived back at base and whilst Izumi put the train away the others were waiting on the platform where Ryuujou was waiting for them. Izumi then caught up as they were conversing.

"Ryuujou, where's kaa-san and aunty?" she asked

"In the archery range relaxing"

"Thanks for telling us" Izumi said as she started leading the group away from the train station

"I'm so glad today is finally over" I said lying down on the tatami mats

"Come on sis it wasn't that bad" Aria said in a teasing tone

"You try going around almost 20 bases in one day and see how you fair sis" I replied pouting

"Hell no thank you" she replied

"That is unbefitting behaviour admiral" Kaga said whilst Akagi started to giggle

"Come on Kaga not you too" I whined.

*Knock**Knock*

"Mom, Aunty you in there?"

"Come in Izumi" sis said and so she opened the door and to our surprise standing next to her was…

"Mizu… what are you doing here?" I asked

"What can't I take time off work to visit my old friends" she said pouting before taking a seat, and for some reason I just couldn't believe her.

"Ah good Akagi and Kaga are here too this makes things much easier" Izumi said whilst the two in question turned to each other before looking over at her

"And why is that" Akagi

"Well it has to do with the two new ship girls" she replied

"I was wondering where Yoko and Tomoko were" sis said

"New aircraft carriers huh" kaga said in her usual tone

"Yes and no" Izumi replied to which Mizu started to snicker and got our curiosity to spike.

"What do you mean my dear" I asked

"Well… Akagi Kaga" she smiled as she got up and walked over to the door "I would like you to meet your elder sister's Amagi and Tosa" she continued to say happily as she opened it to reveal Yoko and Tomoko dressed almost exactly like Akagi and Kaga.

The shocked looks on everyone's faces when I revealed who they were going to see was priceless, well except for Mizu-sensei seeing as she already new but I digress. I then gave the go ahead to Amagi and Tosa and so the two of them went around and hugged their sisters from behind.

It was as I thought when I saw their first reactions, they were acting like they had just seen ghosts are were not believing what they were seeing. The two of them started to grab hold of their sister's arms and were patting them all over to make sure that they were real and slowly but surely that started grabbing and before long…

"Nee-chan!" they both yelled before turning around and pushing the other two to the ground before hugging them in a vice like grip not willing to let their sisters vanish from their sights once again and all Amagi and Tosa could do was rub their siblings hair softly and wait patiently until they calmed down.

It was such a beautiful sight and i just had to take a picture and so i did. Akagi and Kaga then left the room in order to freshen up but not before I noticed I was getting the same feeling from them that I was from Amagi and Tosa. This only further cemented my theory.

Once they came back and sat down next to their sisters, Mizu-sensei took over and started explaining everything that we heard at the hospital to mom and aunty and well they took it rather well thankfully, of course the shock was evident due to how many questions they asked but in the end there were happy with what they had been told. It was then that Kaga decided to ask me something….

"Izumi what did Mizu-sensei mean by our sisters were different from regular ship girls"

"Well Amagi, Tosa you wanna show them" I said with a smile to which the two of them got up and a quick change of equipment later they sat back down again and the look of shock on everyone's faces was seen once more

"Wha…. how" mom asked

"We don't know we are still researching the cores. We are still trying to figure it out" Mizu said

"And that's not all" I said gathering everyone's attention again

"Aunty, you better prepare the four sisters for a whole lot of training, Amagi and Tosa more then Akagi and Kaga"

"And why is that"

"Mizu-sensei I have confirmed my theory. Akagi, Kaga you two can perform the same thing your sisters can"

"R-really" Akagi croaked out

"Yes, hence the training. You two need to get used to your battleship/cruiser heritage and well your sisters need train on both sides"

After that the girls decided to try out what I had told them and just as with Amagi and Tosa, after a couple of tries they were switching their outfits naturally all though they did both mention that it was weird to have access to their guns again. But they were happy because they were much closer to their sisters than they would be if they couldn't switch their outfits.

Deciding that further discussions about the girl's training programs would take place in a few days time, seeing as it was a scheduled rest for the shipgirl's for the next few days starting tomorrow.

Aria then decided to make an announcement about Amagi and Tosa, as well theirs and their sisters outfit switching. Seeing as there was no way in hell she was going to split them up not after they had been reunited after being so long apart.

Once the rest of fleet had been told they all cheered for the sisters and decided to through a massive party to celebrate. Congratulations were all around as the party got underway and before long as it started to wind down Amagi, Akagi, Tosa and Kaga decided to go off on their own in order to rekindle their sisterly bonds. But not before smothering Izumi in a large group hug with Akagi and Kaga thanking her over and over again for reuniting them with their sisters.

Once they had left Izumi was grateful that they had been reunited but she felt a twinge of loneliness but that was quickly stomped out thanks to her mom staying that Amagi was her flesh and blood sister before she was Akagi's and the same went for Tosa as well. Izumi then felt better as she hugged her mother in happiness.

Izumi then decided that she would stay with her sisters for the night and they were only too happy to oblige and after a nice long bath the sisters all headed to Yamato's room and before long the four of them had curled up together in bed and they all slowly started to fall asleep in each other's embrace and soon after silence fell across Sado Island naval yard.


	12. Shipping out

To say I was pissed was an understatement, I was down right furious. Okay I'll calm down and explain first *sighs* alright it had been almost two and half months since the sisters had been reunited and everyone had been calm and peaceful or at least I thought it was.

Christmas had come and gone without incident and everyone happily stuffed themselves to the gills with the wonderful food and then presents where shared all around, all in all fun times were had then and when new year's came around. There were certain scenes that occurred that I would really not like to talk about *cough* drunk carriers *cough*. But after that things started getting weird.

You see aunty had started acting strange and the only thing I could get out of her was that I was being reassigned to another kanmusu base. I thought this was normal at the time seeing as kanmusu were moved around a lot, I hadn't experienced this yet though. But something was really awkward with the way she had said it, not even Amagi or Tosa could get anything out of her before they too started acting weird.

I was starting to get frustrated and I spent most of my time in the trainyard with Chian and Miya. Those two really helped me to calm down and relax as I let out all of pent up emotions by telling them about my problems and fears.

That was two days ago and that leads to today as my rage was starting to get the better of me and so I stormed out of the HQ building and went somewhere where I could cool off. The reason for my reactions was that I had just been informed by my mother that I was, in partial truth, going to another Kanmusu base. But I hadn't been told that the base I was going to was on the other side of the planet in America!

At this point my rage had already started and my blood began to boil. It was at this point that mom explained that it was America's turn to choose for their part of the exchange program and of course they had chosen me, even worse in five days time I was scheduled to leave.

I pretty much lost it after that and ranted at the lot of them, mainly for the fact that they all kept this from me. I felt betrayed and hurt by my family for not saying anything and I went on to say that they called have just sat me down and spoke to me earlier on about the matter and we would have gone from there, but they left to the last possible minute almost and then I stormed out.

I had found my spot, a viewing area up on the nearby hill, and I started crying my eyes out and I just couldn't stop, the hours past as the sun was starting to set and I was still crying….

"Onee-chan…" a voice said gaining my attention and so I turned around and saw my whole family there crying their eyes out as well. Seeing this I dog piled sis and I started crying again holding on to her with an iron grip, I just didn't want to let her go as she begun to stroke my hair.

Crying into my sister's arms like that was the last thing I could remember before sleep started taking hold.

Location: Tokyo Haneda airport, Flight 492

Date: February 20th

Year: 2021

Time:10:00

Five days had passed since the incident and in the end I did forgive my family for what they did but I did manage to get mom to make her giant parfait for everyone as a sign of apology and to be honest everyone stuffed their faces after that.

I also went and saw the american aircraft carriers for help to learn as much as I could seeing as I'd never been to America before. It was then I had started to pack in order to get ready to leave the day after. But I was in for a surprise as once I entered the mess everyone was there waiting with a party and well I couldn't have been any happier.

The morning then came and it was time for me to leave and so after a heartfelt goodbye full of crying and laughter. I hopped on the train and made my way to Tokyo and from there to the airport which is where I was currently waiting for takeoff. Thankfully the route would be direct as possible but only through areas where abyssals were less likely to attack.

Location: San Diego Airport

Time: 4:00am

A 10 hour bumpy flight later I arrived at San Diego Airport, but due to the time difference between here and home it was now just a little bit after 4 in the morning and seeing as I wasn't scheduled to arrive at the base until tomorrow, I hopped in a taxi and made my way to a nearby hotel, which was thankfully booked before hand.

I woke up the next morning to a blaring alarm and even though I hated the damn thing, I knew I had to start adjusting to the local time. So up I got and headed into the shower before getting dressed in some casual clothes and eating my breakfast.

After that I left the hotel with my luggage in tow and started walking towards the naval base along the seaside. It surprised me that despite us being at war with the abyssals this place is really lively just as it was back home. This really brought a smile to my face seeing everyone walking around.

I did get a few curious looks, which I think had to do with my hair, eyes and how short I was. But it really didn't pay them any mind simply because I got used to it.

It was then as I got closer to the base that I saw her, the big hulking floating metal slab that was the USS Midway. The ship that I fought long and hard against and we both came out scratched all to hell, hell I even lost my no.2 turret to lucky bomb drops from her planes.

All I could do was smile at the fact that she was standing proud and I was happy about that. But just as I was about to walk away I saw a couple of people walked up and started talking about some things that got me intrigued….

"You hear… the summoning failed again" the woman said

"Yeah.. they can't figure out why she won't come back. All of the museum ships like Iowa and the others did. But Midway is just being stubborn."

They then went off into their own world talking about random things before walking away which left me there wondering just what on earth they were on about 'summoning'. So I went to a nearby coffee shop before sitting down and pulling out my phone to do some reasearch and what I found out surprised me.

It seems that with a museum ship, taking a fragment and finding a person won't work and so they started using various songs with the person on board in order to 'summon' the ship girl properly. Quirky I know, but hey it worked with the other museum ships so why not.

It seems they had found a girl by the name of charlotte who coincidentally at least according to the article, ironically was the admiral's daughter. She reacted the strongest to the fragment from midway. But no matter what they tried it simply wouldn't work.

' _Damnit Midway you lazy ship, maybe I should shove my foot up your exhaust port to get you moving again'_ I said to myself before looking down at my watch and realising that it was getting close to the meeting time.

I then left the shop and walked the rest of the way and when I made it to the gate, I showed my ID and paperwork and after a few minutes I got the go ahead and was allowed entry. I will freely admit that I thought sado Island was big, but this place takes the freaking cake and made me feel really small.

I shook myself out of it before I started to walk around in order start familiarizing myself with the base and thankfully I would get my train fix as it looks like a train shed had just been finished which made me smile.

There were some buildings like the firing range for carriers that I could recognize, but others I literally have no idea and so with my little tour over I started making my way to the HQ building in order to check in. But just as I was rounding a corner….

"Well look what we have here" a voice said before someone picked me up in a hug

"You are just too damn cute" I looked up and saw a blonde haired person was the one that had me in her clutches and try as I might I couldn't break free.

"There you are sis" another voice said as the blonde haired girl turned around to face a long brown haired girl

"Look what I found, can I keep her"

"Sis put her down she looks scared stiff" in truth I was

"Aww"

"Sis.." The girl said in a threatening tone

" Mo calm d-down" she replied before letting me go and my first instinct was run and hide behind the nearest object which happened to be a cart of some kind.

"Look what you done sis, you scared the poor dear" the brown haired girl said bonking her sister on the head whilst the latter could only rub the back of her head sheepishly

"What the hell is going on out here" a voice boomed as a short blonde haired woman bust out of the HQ building

"M-montana" the two girls said together

A quick explanation later and Montana walked over to the two of them and whacked them both over the head with her clipboard.

"You Idiots seriously" she sighed before turning and looking at me

"It's okay now don't worry. You're the new ship we are expecting aren't you" She said to which I smiled and nodded

"Then please follow me. You two as well" she said and so I followed her with the two sulking girls behind.

We went up some stairs and then pretty soon we arrived at a large set of double doors, thing is it reminded me of Aunty's office back home which made me feel a bit gloomy. But I quickly shook myself out of it and with a quick knock and a muffled enter. We were ushered inside by Montana and she told the other two to go on sit on one of the couches whilst I was to stand in front of the desk.

"So that's what was happening outside" the admiral said chuckling

"Yes ma'am" Montana replied

It seems a brief explanation of what had happened had been given to the admiral, and whilst that was going on I took notice of charlotte standing in the corner of the room with the fragment around her neck. She looked exactly like she did in the article with middle back length light brown hair and vibrant purple eyes, she sure was something to look at as she had almost the same figure as the blonde haired girl from before.

I quickly shook those thoughts out of my head and looked around the room some more before locking onto Charlotte again, she then looked at me and went wide eyed in shock and started to shiver uncontrollably as the fragment disappeared, she then grabbed a nearby filing cabinet to steady herself.

I got genuinely worried and wanted to run over but I couldn't risk it not in front of her mother. But pretty soon she looked back over at me and smiled before I started mouthing

 _*Are you okay char*_

 _*It's Midway now"_

 _*So you finally 'woke up' so to speak*_

 _*Yeah I guess you were the final key that was needed to get me going again*_

 _*Funnily enough I was contemplating sticking my foot up your exhaust. Just this morning infact*_ saying this got a chuckle out of her

 _*Well, At least mother doesn't need to worry anymore. So I thank you Battleship A150*_

 _*Actually its…..*_ Then the admiral started speaking….

"My name is Alisa Bannings and I'm your Admiral for the time being and this is my secretary ship, which you've already had the pleasure of meeting. USS Montana. The two knuckleheads over there are USS Iowa and USS Missouri" She stopped speaking for a moment to take a sip of her drink.

"So now that our introductions are over, why don't you introduce yourself Destroyer-chan" as those words left her mouth, my eyes went wide and my jaw hit the floor and silence descended upon the room but it was soon interrupted by howls of laughter coming from the corner of the room.

"Ha..ha m-mom called you a de-destroyer"

"Charlotte.. You are being…."

"Oh can it Midway, don't make me blow half your deck off again" I retorted with a smirk before she started laughing again.

"M-MIDWAY!" Everyone screamed gaining our attention

"Charlotte s-since when" Alisa said

"Since just a few minutes ago mom, it seems that she *Pointing at me* was the final piece of the puzzle that was needed to get me moving again"

"Really now" she said giving me a analyzing glance

"Plus mom she isn't a Destroyer at all, this is the battleship designated A150 the one I went toe to toe with at the end of the war and came out with half my deck nearly blown clean off" she said as she came over and patted me on the shoulder and with that the room went silent once more.

"EEEEEHHHHH! BATTLESHIP A150!" they all screamed together.

I pulled away from midway and went to a more open area in the room and summoned my outfit in its full glory for all of them to see…

"Is this enough proof for you" I said and I got nodding in return

"I need a drink" I said putting my outfit away before pulling out some ramune from my backpack

And taking a seat.

"Midway… want one" I asked

"Ummmm, sure why not I've always wanted to try one" she replied as she came over and took a seat next to me as i handed her a bottle.

"Oh by the way I go by Izumi now, a chose the name mainly because I didn't want be called A150 over and over again. I hope that is okay with everyone" I said getting nods all around.

After that it seemed the admiral needed answers and so she left into her private quarters and made a phone call to the head of the ship girl program here in the US. It did take awhile for the call as the girls were left to their own devices and well they pretty much talked about various things, mainly about getting Izumi up to speed with how things worked on an american naval base to which she gladly took notes.

Alisa then came back and was happy to announce that she had gotten the correct documentation for Izumi and their would be no further problems concerning getting her settled down for the duration of her stay. This caused Izumi to sigh in relief and midway to pat her on the back.

Once again the roar of a hungry person was heard once more and Izumi yet again blushed and cursed at her tummy whilst everyone in the room laughed, but when Iowa looked at the clock her jaw hit the floor which gained the attention of everyone and to their shock and disbelief it was actually time for dinner.

As for dinner itself it was pretty much, at least to Izumi anyway, a replica of what had occurred when she first revealed herself back on Sado Island. Izumi had to reign in her emotions lest she broke down in front of everyone as she relived those memories.

After dinner the bathhouse was hit with Izumi in the company of Iowa, Midway and a newcomer to the group Harder. Izumi did what she usually does before she entered the bath proper which confused the others until she explained japanese bathing customs to them. Thankfully they all understood what she was telling them.

It was then time for bed and due to there been no rooms available at the present time Izumi was assigned to share a room with montana, to which neither of the really minded and so after getting what small amount of stuff she had in her possession set up. Izumi crawled into her bed and after saying goodnight to montana the room soon fell silent with only the low steady breathing of the two ship girls signalling that the two of them were still there.


End file.
